It’s already been four years since Absu’s last studio album, and it seems the band is going to make there fans wait a little bit longer for the next one. So to treat their fans ears until that next studio album the band has released a two disc collection of rarities, Old EPs, covers, and live recordings; fittingly titled ‘Mythological Occult Metal.’
This collection kicks off with a rarely heard song from the Gummo soundtrack called ‘The Gold Torques of Uláid.’ This particular song is an all out thrash metal assault using clear vocals and superb musicianship the likes of only Absu can deliver. Next up is ‘Never Blow Out the Eastern Candle’ a song taken from the World Domination compilation. Having already heard this compilation I was familiar with the song and it’s your basic Absu sound on this one. Following that is an alternate version of ‘Stone of Destiny’ from the ‘Tara’ album although I can’t find too many differences between this track and its album counterpart. Tracks 4-6 are some of the most interesting songs on this collection, but mostly for how different they sound compared to latter day Absu. These tracks are taken from the 1991 EP ‘The Temples of Offal’ and here the band offer up straight forward brutal death metal. At this time Proscriptor hadn’t entered the band yet and instead they had a guy named Benbow on drums, Lindholm on guitar, Equitant on bass, and Shaftiel was handling the low growls and guitar. Surprising indeed as I never knew the band sounded like this, but ultimately its just boring brutal death metal.
Tracks 7-8 are taken from the ‘...And shineth unto the cold cometh’ EP released in 1995. It’s at about this point in time that Absu really found their sound and started mixing thrash and black metal with some more exotic influences. Both songs are just excellent and are without a doubt one of the best parts about this collection. The final three songs come from the ‘Hallstattian Swords’ 7” which is a recording that was never released. The songs are certainly interesting as they are just epic synth compositions and there is no metal insight here. Again certainly a surprise to hear these dark bombastic songs, but they are undeniably enjoyable for me.
Moving on to the second disc we have the bands cover of the Mayhem songs ‘Deathcrush’ and ‘Silvester Angfang,’ taken from ‘Originators of Northern Darkness’ Mayhem tribute. Naturally they are performed excellently and sound much better than Mayhem’s original. ‘Swing of the Axe’ is taken from the ‘Seven Gates of Hell’ Possessed tribute and again the song is performed flawlessly. ‘Transylvania’ is from the ‘Call to Irons’ Iron Maiden tribute album released back in 1997. I’ve already heard this cover, but I must admit the band does a fantastic job here covering this classic Iron Maiden tune. They play the song totally true to the original and Proscriptor’s amazing drumming really adds something to it. The cover of Destruction’s ‘Bestial Invasion’ is taken from a live studio jam back in 1996. While they perform the song decently the production certainly leaves a bit to be desired. The following four songs are various live songs recorded between 1995 and 1997. These particular songs are interesting since they have Mezzadurus from Blood Storm on vocals and bass. Once more the songs are performed rather well, but the quality isn’t exactly perfect. The final two songs are unreleased rehearsal tracks recorded back in 1993. As you can expect from rehearsal songs they are nothing to get excited about and with the lack of vocals and a poor production there probably going to be skipped over by most people.
Additionally this collection comes in a nice thick digipak with many photos, and a detailed booklet. All things considered ‘Mythological Occult Metal’ is a decent collection of material, and Absu fans will certainly appreciate hearing these rarities. However I think this release should have been cut down to just one disc as the live recordings and rehearsal songs could have easily been trashed since there nothing overly special. As I said at the beginning of this review; it’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything from Absu and from the looks of things were going to be waiting a little bit longer.
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