Review HUMAN ABYSS ‘Death Obsessed’

Human Abyss is a band, hailing from Berlin. The musical focus of the five-piece band is on oldschool death metal, which they blend with a blackened foundation. The band delivers with ‘death Obsessed’ their second longplayer and it is another raging and melancholic journey through the realms of the human soul. In a way the album is an outlet of feelings and emotions, especially from singer Lynn. Born as an intersexual human being, Lynn was forced to go through some unnecessary surgeries under the fig-leaf of help. Surgeries and hormone treatments cause alienation and lead to pain – physically and psychologically. Being now the singer of Human Abyss allows Lynn to process the experienced and scream all the anger and frustration into the world.

With being aware of this serious background, let’s look into the music on ‘Death Obsessed’. The album features ten songs, and it is ‘Cut, Cut, Cut’ that includes a guest. German metal icon Britta Görtz, known from bands like Hiraes and Cripper. She contributes with a strong vocal performance to ‘Cut, Cut, Cut’, which is a bloodcurdling death metal smasher. It’s a pounding song with explicit lyrics that are worth to go through.

While the death metal roots are dominant on ‘Death Obsessed’ it’s the witch-like screams that add some blackened moments to this release. The odd and hoarse screeches are a counterpart to the deep growls but also demand some time to get used to it. Honestly, I could have handled the album without these counterparts and a clear focus on the guttural vocals would have given the album a better flow. On the other hand, it’s these screams that strengthen the lyrically outlines of the album.

To sum up: ‘Death Obsessed’ is a well-crafted death metal album that addresses a very serious social topic. Human Abyss transfer this main theme perfectly into a musical context and use the music to spread the word. All in all we can state that ‘Death Obsessed’ is an interesting extreme metal release and a bit less of the hoarse screams would make good things even better.