Abysmal Dawn Nightmare Frontier

Abysmal Dawn Continues Its Cosmic Death Metal Journey On New EP “Nightmare Frontier” (Review)


Coming off the heels of its ambitious 2020 fifth full-length album, Phylogenesis, Los Angeles technical death metal quartet Abysmal Dawn returns rather quickly with its new four-track EP Nightmare Frontier. Thankfully, it didn’t take Abysmal Dawn six years between releases this time around, as this short sampler is a decent addition to their catalog.

Abysmal Dawn’s most captivating elements are their thought-provoking lyrics and cosmic themes. Musically, they’ve remained rather consistent within the realms of its established death metal style with each subsequent release. While becoming more adventurous with its songwriting, Nightmare Frontier shows the band retaining their trademark traits: a maelstrom of furious riffs, prominent guitar harmonies, chugging, groove-based rhythms, and vitriolic vocals from Charles Elliot.

The Nightmare Frontier EP consists of an original track, a newly recorded version of a previous track and two diverse and invigorating cover tracks. Based on the video game “Bloodborne,” opener “A Nightmare Slain was originally written during the Phylogenesis sessions, while older versions of “Blacken The Sky” initially appeared on the band’s 2004 demo and 2006 debut album From Ashes. This new version differs from the previous track with its mid-paced tempo and shows off Abysmal Dawn’s more melodic death metal side.

When creating cover songs, the idea is for the band to inject some of its own flair into the original composition. “Behind Space,” an In Flames track off their debut studio album Lunar Strain is a great rendition. Instrumentally, Abysmal Dawn injects the song with more of a death metal flavor, even opting to skip the melodic acoustic guitar outro. On “Bewitched,” from Swedish epic doom metal progenitors Candlemass’ Nightfall, it’s a pleasure to hear Elliot’s unexpected clean vocals. Although attempting to mimic former Candlemass singer Messiah Marcolin’s voice is a rather daunting feat for any vocalist, Elliot does the track justice. Whether one is a fan of cover songs or not, these are both great tributes to Abysmal Dawn’s melodic death metal influences and prove to be highly entertaining.

Produced at his own studio, vocalist and guitarist Elliott gives the EP a mean, aural attack without sounding too polished, while the Alien-esque cover art was once again created by prolific death metal illustrator Pär Olofsson, who has created every Abysmal Dawn cover to date. Nightmare Frontier is a nice little stop-gap appetizer before another full-length album that shows off the band’s melodic death metal side, while also paying homage to two classic Swedish metal bands.

–Kelley Simms

Nightmare Frontier released February 4, 2022 via Season of Mist.