Absolutist – Ave
Posted on 9th Feb 12 by Jonathan Keane | 
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“…Absolutist has certainly laid claim to a wreckage here and Ave is nothing short of a violent triumph…”
Absolutist’s first LP Ave has been in the works for a number of months now, but finally it’s out there, available for free streaming with the vinyl approaching in the coming months via Suburban Mayhem. With the band’s demo, Blasphemy, released in March of last year, they exhibited some strong potential but still nothing that would necessarily set the word alight. It’s remarkable then to see how the band has improved in such a relatively short space of time, as Ave is a fucking devastating cluster of belligerent crust that’s bursting at the seams from the opening guitars lines of Churches Burn.
Typically short, the LP feels like an exercise in quality control. It is a tight, solid, fist of concrete to the face, leaving you with a near unanswerable question of how a three-piece alone has managed to conjure up such a crushing cacophony. The palpable, unrefined aggression is the nucleus of this record, and in a live setting that hostile but impassioned ferocity must swell tenfold with tracks like the rush of Black War.
Ave is also dotted with several spoken word samples, seemingly detailing a young man’s pursuit of a life in priesthood. The album title of course alludes to the religious subject matter too and while the overall picture of the concept is a tad unclear, the passages accentuate the imposing, often dark vibes equally created by the riffs and vocals. The duo of vocals between guitarist Shea and bassist Callum means the vocals hop to and fro during the barrage, a la Alpinist, meanwhile the drums are utterly pummelling from the get-go.
Swerving from the concept is Patriot Act, sampling audio from the infamous UCLA taser incident in 2006. Meanwhile, Storm of Words explodes with reckless abandon, accentuating the red-eyed adrenaline that characterises the whole record.
Tectonics then opens moodily first before unsurprisingly exploding into another flurry of aggression that makes way for its crushing crescendo and pummelling close – by far the highest point of Ave. It only then fizzles out into Vile Communion, another brief barrage that rounds out the record perfectly. Absolutist has certainly laid claim to a wreckage here and Ave is nothing short of a violent triumph.
Drop-d Rating: 9/10
Tags: Aberdeen, Absolutist, Alpinist, Ave, crust, HARDCORE, Suburban Mayhem