This is the fifth album from Swiss post-hardcore/metal band Abraham.
Idsungwüssä is the 60-minute follow up to 2022’s Débris de Mondes Perdus. A mix of post-metal, hardcore, and sludge, Abraham’s new record is sure to find firm fans amongst devotees to bands like. Blessings, Coilguns, Converge, Cult of Luna, Inter Arma, Neurosis, The Ocean, Sumac, etc.
Idsungwüssä is an album of texture and depth. It leads the listener on a dark journey into the end of worlds and the ruin of all. Abraham serve as your multifaceted tour guides, capable of evocative worldbuilding and the crafting immersive and rich soundscapes. The core instruments are augmented by organ, keyboards, synths, piano, and moog, (the latter two provided by a member of Coilguns), all deployed with atypical vision.
The compositions are longer and more progressive and intricate this time around. Abraham have thrown a lot of creativity and passion at Idsungwüssä, and the results are strong, enjoyable, and satisfying. The band take their time, never rushing, even when the blast beats are raging; Abraham exist on the spectrum between meditative and psychotic, but at their core they’re determined, deliberate, and considered.
The songs are a mixture of diverse ingredients, experiences, ideas, and sounds, all brought together into a holistic vision for heavy music. Abraham have succeeded in merging the filthy, underground darkness of sludge with the resplendent expressive side of post-metal, making for a record that embraces, at its extremes, both harsh noise and melodic beauty. Between these poles lies much of the material, blending darkness and light into absorbing tracks of varying stylistic expression.
Put differently, Idsungwüssä has a lot going on. The album is worth exploring at length, allowing its manifold depths to reveal themselves over time. Sometimes contrasting, sometimes complementary, but always adhering to a well-realised holistic vision, Idsungwüssä offers an abundance of gems to uncover across its running time.
Idsungwüssä is a compelling amalgamation of apocalyptic heaviness and post-metal refinement. The juxtaposition of grim nightmarescapes and esoteric harsh dissonance on the one hand, with melodic touches and melancholic accents on the other, is not jarring, but somehow transformative.
Highly atmospheric, abrasive in its hostile presence, yet benefiting from a delicate grace in places that belies it’s snarling exterior, Idsungwüssä is a record that deserves to have time spent with it. Abraham have created an immersive experience into post-metal/sludge darkness. Sometimes subtle, sometimes brutal, always high quality.
Very highly recommended. This is a great album.
Wonderbox Metal 