Abscession - Grave Offerings (2015)

   Abscession had a quite stunning debut by "Grave Offerings", and what's more important: despite the band kept the characteristics of Swedish death, their music stands out from the endless line of Swedish death metal bands.
   The reasons are to find in the details. For first hearing, Abscession might not seem different from any ordinary Swedish death metal band.. "buzzsaw" sound, heavy riffs, primitive growling style. But the song compositions are more diverse, and leading melodies making their music catchier than usual. Paradoxically another analogy gave the most  remarkable exception: the Swedes strong affection for British heavy metal. While many bands prefer mixed style with strong '80s influences, for the final track of the album Abscession simply switched to epic heavy metal in the middle of the song. Nobody could see this coming, and such an unusual switch turned out to be advantageous and extraordinary. In total, "Grave Offerings" is a quite enjoyable album, and a grat example how to create diversity and to show something unusual but still very familiar and relatable the same time. How contrast could be made with the tools of balance and unified sound and reverse. This is exactly the feature that's hardly possible to describe and what needs skilled musicians to create. The excellence behind simplicity makes this album great and a potential favorite for the fans of the genre.