No matter how pervasive any expedition into any scene may be, there will always be something that you miss whether it was intentional or simply not looking in the right place for one reason or another. When I first stumbled upon the Irish metal scene, I had no idea what I had found at first. Easily, Ireland’s underground is home to some of the most interesting bands that I’ve found throughout the very entirety of the global underground with some personal favorites calling the island home. Yet, my adventures through the scene were not all-inclusive as I found myself missing over a number of names that many would consider essential. Hands down, one of the biggest oversights on my end has to be Abaddon Incarnate whose reputation as a force to reckon with since the 90s has not been lost on me, but it wasn’t until their newest offensive of unyielding madness that I finally truly know what it means to experience this band’s knack for power and presence.

It can be too often that we find a band within the realm of grind that somehow manages to pump new material out like clockwork as though it was the only thing tethering them to this world, but with that rate of production more than likely comes the drawback of losing quality as time goes on for any reason you might imagine. Staggering releases over time can be frustrating to some fans, but the pay-off of a more well-crafted, dynamic, and overall better listen is always the better option, in my opinion. It would definitely seem as though Abaddon Incarnate agrees with such a sentiment as this is their first full-length album since 2014, but it’s in every way that you can tell they capitalized on that time away to the maximum with all that was brought forth for the thirteen-part creation of unforgiving power that is “The Wretched Sermon”. There isn’t a single moment of this massive record that is left to chance as Abaddon Incarnate truly pulls from their decades of experience to deliver us a concoction of grind and death metal the likes of which have the very power to bring down the sky itself as it’s between the riffs, the power, and utter capacity to bring it all together in a wondrous fashion that we’re able to witness a performance that feels as delicious now as it would’ve when the band first came around. It makes for a performance that is effortlessly one of the more compelling creations out of the world of grind that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing in recent times with the idea of such a crossover with death metal becoming even more alluring in my mind with all that “The Wretched Sermon” accomplishes with such an approach.

There’s nothing new or incredibly fancy with this release, and I don’t think I’d rather it any other way. Abaddon Incarnate has their sound down to a damn science with every facet of this creation building off of the last to make for a deeply layered and detailed experience that simply cannot be ignored, for this is what it means to find the apex of such a sound with this band all but fitting to be the ones to bring about such an effort. “The Wretched Sermon” is nothing to be underestimated or dismissed for all that Abaddon Incarnate brings to the table to effortlessly make their sixth full-length surely one of their best.

“The Wretched Sermon” releases on August 5th via Transcending Obscurity Records!

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “The Wretched Sermon” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Abaddon Incarnate on Facebook here.