After the Abduction – Cracked and Bled (Review)

This is the debut album from UK death metallers After the Abduction.

Here we have 25 minutes of slam-soaked brutal death metal. Falling somewhere between Dying Fetus and Decapitated, (roughly speaking), Cracked and Bled takes influence from both old and new strains of brutality to present us with a brief whirlwind of violence and carnage.

The songs are well-written and are clearly aching to be played live. Smashing things all over the shop, and destructively crushing all that they can see, the music is punishing and relentlessly heavy. It’s also surprisingly well-thought-out too; a band like this could easily overly-rely on huge slamming guitars and little else, but it’s clear that some consideration has been given to structure, dynamics, and intelligent composition.

This is music that will batter and bruise, but not always in the ways that you might expect it to. Both technical and ferocious, Cracked and Bled is an intense listen that should satisfy any fan of brutality.

I like the singer’s voice a lot too; he has a sort of shouted growl that’s charismatic and imbued with more personality than many death metal singers can boast. Additionally, he also knows how to vary his voice to have a more diverse delivery than most as well; monotonous cookie monster delivery this is not.

I must say, I’m more taken with Cracked and Bled than I expected to be. After the Abduction have unleashed a quality bludgeoning here.