Featuring Mike Poggione at bass (ex – Monstrosity, ex – Vile), this duo calls its music plague metal. “Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire” is their debut originally released in 2021 and is now officially published on CD via Archivist Records. “Plague metal” is actually a hybrid of blackened death metal, which is based on brilliant arrangements, contains fantastic performances from Mike Poggione and the Ukrainian Sergestus Baytalaal (vocals, guitars) and speaks in a misanthropic tongue. The songs of this record will blow your mind – give it some listens and you will understand what the band is trying to convey. In the beginning you will get into the eerie, dark, haunted atmosphere and soon later you will understand the fierce riffs, the raging rhythm section, the guttural vocals, the evocative female vocals, everything. It’s a great debut that shows the big potential of the two musicians. Lava Abyss have managed to compose the soundtrack of a nightmare – they have combined sick music and dark lyrics, and the outcome is a hell of a extraordinary twisted musical opus! Give a listen to songs like the title track, “Wasteful Way to Survive”, “Ember of Lava”, “Stream of Mud, Stones and Thawed Ice” and you will adore this plague metal album – now that “Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire” is available again, you don’t have any excuses.
♦ 8/10
Dimitris Zacharopoulos
