An impressive debut album from this Brazilian prog-doom trio. Abske Fides's 2012 disc comes to us from the Solitude Productions label out of Russia, and is one to check out if you're a fan of the dour, prog-tinged heaviness found in bands like Mar De Grises, Void Of Silence and some of the newer Pantheist material. These guys do a similar sort of slow-moving, atmospheric doom metal that employs complex songwriting, proggy instrumental passages and electronic textures throughout their music, and tie in grim philosophical musings and stark urban photography to weave the moody atmosphere that surrounds this album.

The disc opens with the slow mo skullcrush of "The Consequence Of The Other", slow, surging waves of droning sludge and blackened guitar melodies giving the somewhat Neurosis-esque dirge a discordant edge that adds to the song's grim, threatening feel. It takes on a stranger vibe as classical violins begin to appear, joined by the eerie wordless backing vocals of guest singer Marina Jovalangelo. Vocally, Abske Fides keep things interesting with a mixture of moody harmonized male singing, guttural death metal style growls and those occasional female vocals. The rest of the album features more of these long, drawn out arrangements, offering a bit of angularity and drama in each track without diminishing their overall heaviness; there's definitely a bit of a Tool/Isis feel to some of this, though Abske Fides are considerably more doom-laden, with a definite doom-death streak running through their music. They do make several detours away from the lumbering doom into well-crafted passages of brooding instrumental rock, almost math-rock like parts and the occasional burst of rocking power, but the focus mostly stays on the massive dissonant riffage and sorrowful funeral-bell guitars, a wicked distorted bass tone that adds an extra dose of gnarled ugliness to the music, pounding tribal rhythms and grueling doom-laden tempos laced with atmospheric drones, with samples and subtle synthesizers adding an extra layer of cold industrial texture to the music.

Then there's "Coldness", a song that opens with an extended introduction of bleak industrial noise and thrumming drones before the band suddenly drops into an unexpectedly bluesy bit of slow-mo prog, the soulful blues rock guitar winding around the hushed, icy slowcore like something out of an 80's era Pink Floyd record. Some other standout tracks include the song "4.48" with its super catchy, major key riffage wrapped in darker, droning crushing sludge, and the instrumental "Embroided In Reflections" that closes the album, a killer mix of jangly melody and distorted wah-drenched crunch that reminds me, strangely enough, of a Texas Is The Reason hook being doused in squalls of metallic crush, with haunting documentary film samples playing over it a la something from Godspeed You Black Emperor.

Its pretty cool stuff that these guys are doing here, the odd proggy parts and violins and synthesizers give this an interesting added dimension that definitely makes Abske Fides stand out among the ultra-glacial funeral doom that you usually hear coming from this label while still offering lots of crushing, crawling heaviness.