Two surprises with this album. One; this is an Irish band and two; the promo was actually quite accurate in describing these guys. It starts out with “Ireland, is there any extreme metal band on the green island? Yes, and of the highest quality! Do you consider yourself an extreme metal fan and you haven’t heard of Abaddon Incarnate before? Really?”

Guilty on two counts there actually, firstly I’m a metal fan from Ireland and secondly I’ve never heard of these dudes. Shame on me, and shame on my friends for not telling me either! For this is a band that, despite not being particularly original, manages to grab me by the balls and keep me listening from start to finish.

Grind meets influences of black and death metal at regular intervals and arrangements are kept so that nothing is predictable or monotonous.

Tracks destined for my MP3 player are “Centerfold Redemption”, “Self Portrait Of Hate” and “Meat”.

What I can really appreciate are the duelling vocal styles throughout the album between singers/guitarists Bill and Steve. Bill has a voice akin to that of regular death bands while Steve compliments the grunts with screams that would put Dani Filth to shame.

So if you haven’t heard of these guys before you have now… no excuses this time! I’m off to see what I can find from their previous offerings; The Last Supper and Nadir, just to make up for my previous spell of ignorance!