Year of release: 2020
Label: Ridge ov Dragon
Rating: 8,4/10
As most Bagnik Zine readers know, ABYSSFIRE is a new project by VHORTHAX musicians, featuring Morkh, who is also known to listeners thanks to SERPENTRANCE, MORBID LUST, GOATPSALM, SICKRITES and his design studio Nether Temple. Taking into account the experience and connections of the participants, the project could immediately sign the agreement with some strong foreign label, but first decided to support the friendly Ridge ov Dragon. At the moment, the album has only been released in cassette format with a circulation of 100 copies. However, this does not diminish its value at all - on the contrary, it increases it, since “The Raging Hearts of Hell” is in a good sense a professional work of people who understand what Black Metal is and know a lot about it.
The debut of ABYSSFIRE plays an interesting role of modern occult Black Metal, being unlike the vast majority of similar releases. In other words, the group does not follow the path of the Swedes, but chooses its own path. This path takes it into technical Death Metal territory. There, the musicians carefully collect everything that suits them, drag it to their camp and throw it into a bottomless pit blazing with unearthly fire. The mixture is done isely: no sizzling, fusion or prog metal (almost). Only those elements are used that are able to increase the penetrating ability of the compositions and enhance the flaming Chaos. There was no task to show off with long fingers and shit.
As it turned out, this variant of technically advanced Black Metal is very interesting even to listen to with your ears, without delving into the essence of what is happening. The compositions are constantly balancing on the brink of oversaturation, but do not fall into the abyss. They retain a clearly visible structure on which constructions for additional purposes are built. (I apologize for the woolen "engineering" language, just from time to time the album brings up vague images of some menacing buildings appearing right on the sand. It has a hot and dry sound, and then there is this cover in sand colors). The balance is ensured, among other things, by the equally hard work of all instruments. This is a very important moment: when the guitar parts are curled into spirals and tied into knots, and the drummer plays AC/DC, the result can be safely sent to the trash can. But ABYSSFIRE have set high demands on themselves, so both guitarists, bassist and drummer are pounding their heads, and you can hear it. The vocals are also not easy: although they are monotonous, they are produced in such a way as to achieve a truly infernal effect. Of course, I can't help but mention the wonderful guitar solos (for me the very fact of their presence is already wonderful).
In addition to the main collective of musicians, other eminent personalities took part in the creation of the album: Varagian from DO SKONU made backing vocals on “Mlkh”, Phaesphoros (ex-KAWIR, TERRÖRHAMMER, ALL MY SINS) reamped the guitars, and T.T. of ABIGOR was engaged in mixing and mastering. The latter fact is not very encouraging, since T.T. has stained himself with friendship with German leftists and claims to be the preacher of true Black Metal on Facebook, where he often spreads disinformation and just blatant bullshit. Despite the indisputable merits of this man, I would not, say, throw a copper into his hat. But it doesn't really matter; it has no effect on the ABYSSFIRE essence. The cassette was designed by Morokh himself, so high quality, intriguing and detailed art, and complementarity of visual and sound pictures, are ensured. In addition, the layout contains the lyrics of all the songs that reveal a solid store of knowledge and personal experience in the field of the occult, as well as simply the ability to write deeply meaningful lyrics in English. You can take a closer look at all this on a video.
English (UK) 
Крыўская