Hymn To Abramelin

Last week I went to the local record fair. My main goal was to conclude an already settled trade. Once the trade was done, I started lurking around the various crates. A first press of Blasphemy "fallen angel of doom", exposed on the wall of a stand that was mainly selling dad-rock, captured my attention. I decided to check it later since I thought there was no one around that could be interested in this particular record. After visiting a couple of overpriced dealers (300 € for a Declino ep in shitty conditions, lol), I went straight to the Blashemy one with no hurry at all. Of course, as soon as I arrived, I immediately noticed the record wasn't exposed anymore. Then I saw, right in front of me, a bloody metalhead buying it in that exact moment. Well, this time I've had to bite the bullet since it was nothing but my fault. As soon as the lucky bastard left, I started to talk with the dealer to only discover that the price was  good too, damn it! Then he told me "well, check these 3 crates, there's good stuff in here as well!". So I hopelessly started the process of flipping through endless piles of records. Of course there was nothing I was looking for so I gave up after the second crate. While I was quietly leaving, hoping of not being noticed, the guy told me loudly: "what, you don't check the last one?". I felt forced so I submissively went through it as well. While I was almost done with this crate as well, I finally found something I was looking for: a copy of Messiah "hymn to abramelin" with the red cover (it's the second press but I like it more than the first one on black). I briefly negotiated the price with the dealer so I ended up paying a fair price for it.

What can I say about this record? Perhaps one of the most underrated and overlooked band ever. Hailing from Switzerland and featuring a future member of the mighty Fear Of God, these guys got unfortunately overshadowed by Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. But in 1986 they released this monster of a debut album that was way ahead of its time. While there's still an undeniable slightly thrash influence going on, the main ingredients are definitely more closer to the first black metal wave and even proto-death metal, I'd dare to say. Something not too far from another classic album released during the same year on the other side of the globe: "Morbid Visions". With whom it shares also the same kind of raw production that would soon become a standard for the second wave of black metal. For sure a pioneering band that set the standard for the bands to come and still sounds relevant today. Too bad they never got the attentions they absolutely deserved.