Review: Dizziness – Abhorrent Flickering of Obscurity

Review by K

Dizziness – Abhorrent Flickering of Obscurity

Record Label: Independent

Year: 2024

Rating: 8.5/10

A quick look at Metal archives reveals that Dizziness (Greece) contains 3 members, Grind, Defiant and another guy with an unpronounceable name. There doesn’t appear to be a drummer which is going to make for an interesting review…. They seem to have been around forever (well, since 2008) and have released a multitude of splits and Eps, along with a trio of full-length LPs. Abhorrent Flickering of Obscurity is the fourth full length, and so without further ado and with fingers crossed for a decent if ghostly drummer, let’s have a look…

“Smoulder Dun” groans, clicks, wails, creeps and chugs into life like an approaching train, and then suddenly explodes into a roaring cacophony of very competent and well-produced Black Metal. The snare sound is wonderfully loud and yet balanced beautifully in the mix. The guitars are violent, dark and full of melodic riffing venom. Vocals are handled efficiently if without much in the way of surprise. Midway through, the track breaks down into a DSBM style saddened wall of misery, before regaining its former furious speed. There’s a very epic feel to this…

“Into Nullity” carries on where its predecessor left off, breakneck brilliant drumming ( take a bow Mr Mystery) and a brick wall of nasty, thick guitar. Dizziness has had their Emperor albums out as an extra layer of higher octave guitar appears and complements the fury very nicely indeed. Once again there’s a midway instrumental breakdown. Part 2 of this rather excellent track is very much set in the traditional tracks of Black Metal days of yore, with solid minor chord riffing and occasional choral synth. Fantastic work.

Dizziness

“O Vrachos” has a wonderful medieval, folky melodic feel and atmosphere. Dizziness is a band that isn’t short of ideas which is always encouraging in a saturated scene. Old-school vinyl crackles surround the track like quotation marks and if you’re waiting for the vocals you’re shit out of luck. Nicely done though. Following on comes the well paced and riff laden “Shrunk” which finally detaches the guitars a little and gives us a bit of solo work. Not a lot but then this isn’t the genre for wailing solos. The dual tracked vocals are wonderfully tortured in nature and lend the track an atmosphere of real dread. This is how BM should sound, hypnotic yet crushingly loud and brutal. A masterwork. “Shrunk” signs off with a few WW2-esque bomb blasts and the settles into the next offering, the penultimate track, “A Limping Pilgrim”. After a slow and heavy start, there’s a little jiggery-pokery that suddenly gives way to a two-tone roar that in turn segues into some quite beautifully tuneful guitar work- all backed up by the fierce yet well managed vocals. There’s lots to admire here. This is an album I could easily find myself reaching for on multiple occasions.

And so to the final offering of this very competent and well thought out album. “Sound of Insight” kicks off with some digital noisescapes and samples of some guy speaking about something that’s probably important. The guitar feedback squeals into life and just as we’re expecting the track to kick off like a motherfucker, it ends. Oh well.

Abhorrent…. is a superb album. It’s produced extremely well, with a magnificently clear snare and well balanced guitar sound. The vocals consist of everything you need from this kind of band, as do the extremely well thought out tunes and riffs. Greece has always put out bands of really high quality and in Dizziness I cannot see an end to this trend. Splendid.