Germany produces some very fine Hardcore bands indeed - many of them release on This Charming Man Records or on Moment Of Collapse Records - Abest tick all boxes with this release.
22 minutes of sheer rage that is clearly inspired by some of the finest, dirtiest blackened hardcore bands of our times. 10 years ago most people would directly have guessed that the band in question must be from the USA – well, not anymore. Abest from Goettingen in the middle of Germany are as much early ISIS as they are Locust, as much post-metal as they are screamo. Their sound was refined over several years of playing alongside such diverse bands as Svalbard, Hope Drone, Red Apollo or Sun Worship and was manifested at Hidden Planet studio by Jan Oberg.
The record is like a depiction of Chinese warfare during the Korean War in the 1950s – no retreat, no surrender, no care if 1,000 or 1,000,000 soldiers die. Those soldiers were thrown wave after wave against the American troops and the latter couldn’t shoot fast enough to kill them all. Abest doesn‘t want to kill, but they mutilate every sense of false security, one example for this is the “Dread”, the longest track on Bonds of Euphoria. It starts with a slow, downtuned guitar motif which is accompanied by cymbals and toms and really takes its time – in comparison that is, we are not talking about an intro of Tool-length – before after 75 seconds the drums really kick in and layer upon layer of dynamics are added culminating in harsh blastbeats and infernal screaming.
The drums are generally a great asset of Bonds of Euphoria because they lead the way without dominating the sound too much, they are like the general in the background directing his armies to war and when necessary also making quick adjustments in form of blastbeats or slowing down the songs a notch. The band is generally so “tight” that you won’t be able to squeeze a single leaf between them.
With two very fitting labels backing this release (This Charming Man and Moment of Collapse) one can only hope that the trio will also receive some international acclaim as they are definitely at the height of their game and very close to those American role models who defined this kind of music, no matter if it’s Primitive Man or Buried at Sea. Fans of the genre everywhere should give this a listen, especially if you want to find out about the global metastases of a genre with far-reaching addictive-ness.
