Beautiful, well articulated swirling chaos across all known and higher dimensions, the aural medium is being reeled out and stretched to painful extremes with Dryad's The Abyssal Plain. This record takes pride in itself being a violent troublemaker with a baseball bat, smashing the glass entrance of the city's biggest bank. As fragile as glass is, so are our perceptions on musical genres and I stand guilty of considering crossover or crust bands pretty predictable, yet in this case I stand corrected.
Dryad picks these sufficiently mapped genres and transforms their aftertaste into something new, a creation that musically stays well in its lane, yet it all feels reborn and refreshing. There's ample space for the brutality of the band to shine, and it does through classic but fierce guitar lines, excellent drum work and amazing coherence among all the record's pieces. No need to mention that Dryad do not shy themselves away from black metal, a record that could well be put under that general label, yet is possessed by its own vivid demons.
The non-vocal side of The Abyssal Plain is eerie and haunting, from the introduction clean guitar lines, to the masterful piano interlude "Chimera Monstrosa", or the adventurous noise / ambient "Raptures of the Deep" and the horror-like outro. Heavier moments are also served without hesitation for the better part of the album, especially in the memorable riffs of "Bottomfeeder", "Trenches" and the self-titled track. I absolutely fell for "Eutrophication" and savoured the transition from the fastest and most intense song "Loki's Castle", to an equally short in duration synth number "Hadal".
If you aren't already sold, it's high time the clear highlight of The Abyssal Plain is mentioned: the totally outstanding vocal performance of the singer, Claire Nunez. Simply non-stop, agonising high pitched screams, a voice that sounds like thunder from across the plains, it locks all the different elements of the record together: a colossal offering with amazing concept, honest intentions, insightful material and real passion. Read more, listen more and find out what they are about, while diving into this exquisite monstrosity.
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