Abhoria Charts the "Depths" Of Humanity on the Edge of Extinction (Full Premiere + Track-by-Track Rundown)

As much as I enjoy playing games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., DayZ, and other punishing apocalyptically-oriented time-abysses, I'm very confident that my chances of surviving an apocalypse are absolutely nil. In a film analogy, I'm that slow, sad bastard who dies in the background to establish what type of zombies we're dealing with, you know? I'm only more confident in this estimation after hearing Abhoria's new album Depths, which tackles some of the deadly, depressing, and non-zombie possibilities within a fallen civilization through exceptionally deadly black metal. Blending impressive technical work with meaty riffs, the California quartet exert absolute control with dazzling results-- the whole album flows like a mad dash for survival. This is an album where each instrument is a joy to focus on (including Ben Pitt's ominous croaks and haunting screams), but perhaps for myself especially the drums -- burying flashy fills even in the densest thickets of blast beats.

Horror and suffering are major elements in the album's narrative, but so is fear -- dramatic ambushes and bleak desperation both factor into Depths. The band has a knack for dangling suspenseful, floating chords over the listener like an ethereal Sword of Damocles before cutting the frayed rope to reveal very real danger -- in the form of riffs, that is.  Depths builds a very real, very daunting world not just because it's increasingly less difficult to imagine these circumstances, but because each song has its own character, revealing a new facet of the band's vision as well as their sound. We've got the album streaming below as well as a track-by-track rundown from the band.

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Depths Track-by-Track:

1. "Emergence"

Trevor Portz (guitar): In ‘Emergence’, the listener is introduced to someone who has been essentially ignoring the fact that the world outside has gone to complete shit. They’ve stayed locked away, disinterested in the dystopian nightmare that has materialized just outside their door. But by doing so, they’ve also started to lose their own humanity. This was certainly inspired by the Covid lockdown. For many of us, being disconnected from our regular lives was pretty shocking, especially for those living alone. I talked to several friends in that situation who really felt like they’d been completely cut off from the rest of society.

2. "The Inexorable Earth"

Trevor: While ‘Depths’ isn’t a strict concept album, it does have a thread that connects the stories told in each song. A sudden revelation leads the person introduced in ‘Emergence’ to realize they can’t stay isolated forever, so they decide to venture out and see what’s actually gone down; each subsequent song details a situation they come across during the journey.

The horror of what’s been going on becomes immediately apparent; the world has become a human-made hellscape, and the desperation of those in it has led to some truly vile behaviors. So our “narrator” of sorts vows to explore the world, seeking to find a semblance of hope for humanity.

When I started full-on writing for the second album, this was the first song that really did it for me —it was EXACTLY what I wanted it to be (much like ‘False Idols’ was on our first record). It’s fast and brutal, but with slower melodic breaks, and really sets the stage for the rest of the album. This was also the song that truly sealed the deal in terms of Ben being the right vocalist for us. Check out the inhumanly long scream he does about halfway through—no studio fakery here, just mega-lung power!

3. "The Well"

Trevor: ‘The Well’ is about a group of refugees who have fled their tattered city in hope of a better life, but are becoming increasingly hopeless as winter is approaching and they’ve run out of food and water. Their fate appears to take a turn for the better when they stumble upon a natural water source. In the throes of their desperation, coupled with sudden elation, they start drinking voraciously from the source. After a couple minutes, however, people start violently convulsing, realizing the water source is tainted. The one person who didn’t drink can do nothing but watch helplessly as their friends die around them.

This was actually inspired by a real place—Montezuma Well in Arizona. The water in the “well” has very high levels of arsenic, and thus is not a viable source of drinking water. I was fascinated by the fact that this seemingly life-saving water body was ultimately poisonous, and can imagine many prehistoric people went through the same excitement-followed-by-devastation that the refugees in our story did.

Musically, this song was one of the last finished for the album, though the bulk of it had existed in demo form for several years. The main riff was inspired by early ‘90s black metal, and I feel like it has a bit of a Nocternity vibe, specifically! Coupled with the doom-y riffs that come later, it seemed to perfectly flow with the theme of the song. Igor went at the bass parts here (and on the rest of the album) in a completely different way, and his fretless wanderings give the track a very unique sound.

4. "Within Our Dominion"

Trevor: The story here came from a very real experience. Back in 2015, I underwent vocal surgery… apparently my years of metal screeching with poor technique had caught up to me. My doctor had warned me that there was a chance my voice would “never be the same” after the surgery, which is a pretty bizarre thing to process. As we do, I focused on the worst possible (and wildly unlikely) scenario that my voice would be gone for good, and wondered what life would be like if that happened.

So the song looks at a small society that has formed, where everyone has taken a very permanent vow of silence. When newcomers arrive, they are offered a terrible choice: allow your vocal cords to be severed and live as one of them, or be killed.

I believe this was the second song I wrote specifically for the album, and it was actually done BEFORE the first record came out. It leans on the riffier side of black metal, which is definitely my comfort zone.

5. "They Hunt at Night"

Trevor: This one was initially written and demoed as the b-side of a 7” that never materialized. I was pretty stoked on it, though, so I resurrected it for the album. It’s fast and thrashy, and lent itself well to lyrics about encountering a band of people who have essentially reverted to being animalistic, primal hunters.

There was originally an entirely different chorus riff, but when the drums were being tracked by JS, I ditched it and wrote something based on his drum pattern; ultimately, I think it really kicked the track up a notch.

6. "Devour"

Trevor: Is there anything more desperate and taboo than considering cannibalism? From Alfred Packer to the Donner Party, it’s certainly a fascinating topic. I remember having a late-night conversation with Stevie (Ashen Horde’s vocalist) and a couple of other dudes about it years ago. Would you do it? How grave would things have to be to consider it? (I won’t name names, but someone there had a much lower threshold than the rest of us!) This song looks at someone who is out of options, and starts to ponder alternative options for sustenance...

The guts of this song came from the first album sessions, and it was originally slated to be included on that record. But I wasn’t sure if it would fit (our self-titled already had one slow song in ‘Sunless’), so we cut it before drum tracking. But I really dug the grimness of it, so after some re-writing, it found a home on “Depths.” This one went over very well during our summer mini-tour, too.

7. "The Foundling"

Trevor: This track also had origins in the first-album sessions. Oddly enough, I ended up pulling it when I couldn’t settle on the drum pattern for the opening section. But I really liked the riffs, and either found the right pattern or gave up the fight... I don’t quite recall. It definitely has a bit more of a death metal influence, and while I tend to find all of the genre-labeling to be unnecessary, I would probably say it fits squarely in the blackened death metal box.

Here, we find someone who has essentially given up on ever again interacting with another person, only to discover an abandoned—and nearly feral—child. While she appreciates the companionship, it’s not long before the realization sets in that she can’t keep two people alive in the harsh environment in which they’re trapped. It looks at another philosophical scenario: if you were stuck in a situation with another person where there were only enough supplies/food/ shelter for one, what would you do? Save yourself or save them? Would they do the same for you?

8. "Ghosts in the Smoke"

Trevor: Back to hyperspeed! What can I say—I love blast beats and atonal riffs combined with occasional melodic dalliances. It’s a wrist killer, for sure.

Lyrically, we look at someone who has been properly broken by the events that have destroyed their world, and whose mind has decided that there are enemies in every shadow. Not only that, but they’ve also become convinced that it is their mission to save everyone else. “I will not be forgiven, but my name will be ever spoken in reverence for the vengeance I delivered.”

I suppose you could say this one is politically-inspired, but not in such a way that I’d call it a political song. Rather, it’s about the fear and paranoia that people on both sides of the spectrum feel about the other. We’ve hit a point where everyone seems to feel like they’re surrounded by enemies just waiting to strike, but it’s definitely not that dire. It mirrors ‘Emergence’, in that it touches on how mentally dangerous it can be to cut yourself off from the outside world.

9. "Winter’s Embrace"

Trevor: While the entirety of ‘Depths’ deals with people struggling through desperate situations, ‘Winter’s Embrace’ is sort of the “peak of desperation” song. At this point, a group of people have been searching for hope for an interminably long time and, as winter begins bearing down on them, realize there really isn’t any hope left. But humans are ambitious to a fault, and even as they huddle together in a cave—uncertain if they’ll ever leave it—there’s a deep-rooted drive to keep going forward.

The song was inspired by a fascination I have with people going to extreme places—whether that’s Antarctica, the bottom of the ocean, or the outer reaches of space. Living in our posh, modern society, it’s hard to imagine not only being far from everyone and everything you’ve ever known, but also understanding there’s a good chance you’ll never return. Survival instinct is pretty amazing, even if I doubt how well I’d do in such situations!

I wanted to close the album with something a bit more mid-paced and epic, somewhat mirroring ‘Sunless’ from the first album. I couldn’t resist throwing in a blast beat section, however... Ben did fewer vocal layers on this one, and his passionate delivery really reflects the desperation of the people on which it’s based.

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Depths releases January 19th via Prosthetic Records.