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Sixth album for the venerable Black/Thrash institution Absu, fresh off their 2009 self-titled comeback album. This time we get a sort-of self-titled work called Abzu with somewhat off-putting would-be cleverness. What will the next one be? Absubooboo? I was both hopeful for and leery of this, as Absu were once a brilliant band, and could be again, and their last one was solid, if not on a par with the career-defining Tara. I feared this one might be noticeably worse and signal the inevitable decline, but instead we get a perfectly decent album of this band's trademark frenetic thrashing.

All the ingredients are here: the speedy riffing, the furious speed, the complexity and orbicular lyrics. So it's hard to say why the impact of this is less than older Absu works. It could be that the riffs just are not as good as they used to be, and that's a point, because they are not, despite some strong moments. But mostly I think it's just that the feral hunger of a young band is impossible to fake. Proscriptor is no longer an angry young man, but a seasoned pro, and professionalism can't compete with enthusiasm when it comes to this kind of music. In the final analysis this disc is just a little too carefully put together, a little fussy, a little too sterile.

That said, it is still a good disc. A bit short, especially since almost half of it is the fourteen-minute "A Song for Ea", but it shows that Absu are still a force to reckon with.