Released By : Small Stone Records
Genre : Stoner Rock
Link : http://abrahmamusic.net
Lineup:
Seb Bismuth – Vocals, Guitar
Nicolas Heller – Guitar
Guillaume Colin – Bass
Benjamin Colin – Drums
Tracklist:
01. Alpha
02. Neptune Of Sorrow
03. Tears Of The Sun
04. Dandelion Dust
05. Honkin’ Water Roof
06. Loa’s Awakening (Prelude)
07. Vodun Pt. 1 – Samedi’s Awakening
08. Big Black Cloud
09. Headless Horse
10. Vodun Pt. 2 – I, Zombie
11. Oceans Of Sand…
12. …Here Sleeps Ghosts
13. Vodun Pt. 3 – Final Asagwe
14. The Maze
15. Omega
Well, this new album from ABRAHMA is a first for me… For all of the hundreds upon hundreds of new release albums I listen to each year, never before have I had an album in front of me from Stoner band based in France. There’s been a lot of great hard rock and metal coming out of France over the last five years or so as other have mentioned, but the Stoner genre is one the French have yet to attack on a global scale.
The biggest positive comment I could give this album is that with it the band have actually managed to take the Stoner genre and blend it around just enough to give them what I would consider to be a slightly unique sound. They still fit finely within the compounds of the style, but with the addition of some Space Rock and the occasional modern-ish riffing, their sound is different enough that you could pick them out of line-up pretty easily.
The vocals are consistently good throughout the album, some thing that can’t be said about all that many French releases, and the intricate, moody guitar work rolls through your ears and seeps into your brain at every opportunity. The slight progressive-ish elements and the occasional modern element means that comparing ABRAHMA to MASTODON isn’t that far-fetched. As far as overall class and execution I think the album could have been a little bit better and would have benefitted from a little bit more cohesion at times. That being said though, songs like DANDELION DUST, BIG BLACK CLOUD and the ten-plus minute epic THE MZE show that there is a very strong foundation to build upon for the future.
I don’t think that THROUGH THE DUSTY PATHS OF OUR LIVES will be the album that helps ABRAHMA stamp their names into the bigger leagues, but I am certainly interested in keeping an eye out for what they do next. The sound and stlye that the band are exploring is one that is definitely worth persisting with and hopefully they will regroup after some hardcore touring work and write an album that will see them breaking out big all over the place.
Written By ZeeZee