Immortal Bird – Empress/Abscess (2015)

Brilliantly pivoting between Death and Black Metal, today we have Immortal Bird and their crushing debut release “Empress/Abscess”. Pummeling through five tracks and over 30 minutes of material, this band’s sound is very unique and powerful, making them one of the freshest sounding artists of 2015. If you are a fan of music that is challenging, brutal, and melodic, this is one of those rare releases that will satisfy your cravings.

Opening with the dissonance of “Neoplastic”, the band sets the mood with piercing riffs and massive drums. With a certain melodic flair to a mixture of Death/Black Metal riffs that weaves back and forth between old-school Entombed-like Death Metal to Watain-caliber riffage, the band instantly grabs your attention. With Rae Amitay delivering a punishing vocal performance, it allows the band to deliver brutal tracks like “Sarophyte”.

One of our favorite tracks in this release is the curious “Sychopant” that mixes straight-up Death Metal with some Black’n’roll elements creating the perfect headbanging/moshing combo piece. As the album progresses, the melodic touches start becoming more evident on tracks like “To A Watery Grave” and the 10-minute masterpiece “And Send Fire”. We greatly enjoy this side of the band since they don’t compromise on brutality to deliver such emotional melodic sections.

Overall, “Empress/Abscess” is one hell of a debut album from this very promising band. Immortal Bird perfectly balances brutality from Black and Death Metal influences and mashes them up into their own depraved sound. If you like punishing music that is well crafted and melodic, this is one album you can’t afford to miss.

Label: Broken Limbs Recordings

Release: July 14th, 2015

Genre: Death Metal

Country: USA