ALBUM REVIEW: The Abyss In Silence – If I Die Today
It’s hard to place why, but post-hardcore and sludge metal just feel made for each other at this point. Perhaps it’s something to do with the sheer weight of the latter and the way it pairs with the often more emotional heft of the former – or maybe it just sounds good. Either way, Italy’s IF I DIE TODAY certainly seem to agree. Formed in 2007, they first really began to marry the genres on 2015’s Cursed. It yielded impressive results – enough to land them support slots with names as respected as FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES and WHILE SHE SLEEPS among others – but a follow-up hasn’t materialised until now. This Friday, the band release The Abyss In Silence – their fourth full-length album, and first for Argonauta Records. It’s another solid effort from the now four-piece, one that offers plenty for fans both old and new.
Like Cursed before it, The Abyss In Silence is a concept album. Where its predecessor explored the lives of a litany of seemingly ‘cursed’ characters, this one deals with grief and loss. It starts with Life and Death, followed by a five-track run that charts the five stages of grief (denial, anger, negotiation, sadness and acceptance), before ending, perhaps defeatedly, in Darkness. There’s that emotional weight we were on about, and it’s matched by the music from start to finish.
If anything, The Abyss In Silence is slightly sonically heavier than Cursed. It seems IF I DIE TODAY have upped the sludge even further this time around, and they also benefit from something of a beefier modern production. It’s also a relatively short record, clocking in at a fleeting 23 minutes. It runs by with a breathless urgency as a result, quickly launching quite literally into Life with raging hardcore intensity. Death follows and is unsurprisingly bleaker still, its winding riffs soon descending into a crushing metallic heft. Here, pained vocals bark a repeated hook of “Time has come for you” before setting up a final blast of ferocity to hammer home that “This is the end of the road”.
Of course, Death isn’t really the end of the road here. With the next chunk of the record charting the stages of grief, there aren’t loads of surprises to follow. The music stays in a relatively similar lane throughout, combining sludgy riffs and screamed vocals to bleak and bracing effect. White Noise (Anger) bristles with expected rage, the band’s vocalist asking “Where is your God now!?” amid a furious outro. Autumn (Sadness) is similarly evocative, its quieter bookends and mournful guitar work doing well to capture the sorrow of the stage of grief in question. Void (Acceptance) is another highlight, this one boasting some soaring and stirring riff work before the final gut-punch of Darkness. Despite its title, there’s an intense sense of catharsis in the record’s closer; it sees the band refusing to turn back, asking for forgiveness, and finally declaring “I will always love you”.
On its surface, The Abyss In Silence is just another solid sludgy post-hardcore record; but it’s actually worth digging into far more than that. Despite its short runtime, it takes listeners on an impressive and evocative journey, with its lyrics adding significant emotional resonance to an already powerful sound. That’s what makes this a real triumph; it’s a record that should hit hard for anybody who’s ever lost somebody, and one that will be well worth going back to as the year progresses.
Rating: 8/10
The Abyss In Silence is set for release on April 29th via Argonauta Records.
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