Absu - "Manannán" (video)

May 23, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6S-zxbaJuo

“Manannán” (official video)

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Happy 10th birthday to Absu’s Tara, one of the best metal albums this young century has produced.

If Led Zeppelin had been reincarnated as a blackened thrash band, they would have been Absu. Celtic and occult influences, gonzo (Bonzo) drummer: check, check, check. Tara never fails to raise the raise the hairs on the back of my neck. In a cosmic sense, what energy Slayer lost around the turn of the century, Absu inherited.

How would you make a video if your drummer were also the singer? For “Manannán” (the video is for the original version on the In the Eyes of Ioldánach EP, not the re-recording on Tara), Absu solved that problem by cutting between two looks. Proscriptor in front in silverface! Proscriptor in back in whiteface! The juxtaposition along with one guitarist wearing winter camo colors (???) makes for quite the motley look. But it’s fitting: a motley crew for a motley sound.

Absu has a new album, Abzu, forthcoming. A fan maintains an Absu-specific blog here, which looks like a good hub of resources on the band.

— Cosmo Lee

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HEAR TARA

– Full album stream –