below hollow stars: Abyss (1993

#5: Abyss

More or less all of the European countries had their own intrinsic twists on the genre. Far Apart is distinctively Swedish, Bob Tilton is distinctively British, and Abyss is distinctively German. There's really two bands I've always earmarked as the progenitors of the German sound which are Abyss and Age. Both put out records on Bremen's own: Love Records, both were early 90's, and both were fiercely political. This post is on Abyss though, Age will eventually get its own. I can best compare Abyss to a German band attempting to emulate the Ebullition bands of the time. There's likely some truth in that comparison considering Abyss shared a split with Iconoclast (joint release with Old Glory & Love). Abyss only released two 7" and the two are actually a bit different. The 1993 S/T feels a bit faster paced compared to the lengthier, and at times, more melodic tracks of the split. Both are great but I do often find myself coming back to the 1993 S/T a bit more than the split. They also had one track on the compilation, The Vortex File, titled Lie. This track I believe was recorded during the session for the S/T. As for their run, it seems they were likely around from 1993 (possibly 1992?) until 1995. The inner sleeve of the Iconoclast split mentions that they were donzo so it's pretty safe to call it at 1995. As for what came after it seems that the members didn't do much. I wasn't able to find any post Abyss projects. That does differentiate it certainly from Age where the members continued on post demise in some other fantastic projects. Regardless, the 9 tracks left behind definitely pack a punch.

*click on album names for download links, music is in .wav, images are in .jpg*

Abyss S/T 7" (1993)

A1. In The End

A2. Not

B1. How

B2. Confession