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ABOMINATOR
The Fire Brethren

Hells Headbangers (2025)
Rating: 7.5/10

Forming in 1994 out of some fiery pit in the darkest corner of Melbourne in Australia, Abominator is the duo of Chris Volcano (vocals and drums) and Andrew Undertaker (guitars), both of whom still serve time in another band, Cemetery Urn.

Very much baked and raised on anti-Christian themes, Abominator’s new full-length record – their sixth – chokes on its own scorched skin by producing black, spiralling clouds of thick smoke, the sort you’d expect from blasphemous war metal cults. The tirades here are forceful, as one would expect from a twosome draped in bullet-belts and barking satanic orders.

There’s something epic about this opus with all but one song running over the five-minute mark. The vocals are absolute furnace roars, snarling from the burning abyss and accompanied by barbaric riffs straight from the Blasphemy tool shed of terror. ‘The Templar’s Curse’ opens up, seeping from behind the curtain before an explosion of gushing riffs are pierced by a crazed yet melodic solo. The vocals are utterly despicable gasps, Chris sounding as if he has spent too long guzzling down pints of hot lava.

Very much camped in the black-death void, Abominator is an acquired taste and well out of range for the weak of heart. The noise puked up by ‘Covens For Azmodeus’ is the musical equivalent of having your brain put through a blender. The drums and riffs are a blizzard so barbaric that my finger hovered over the “stop” button for some while as I thought my head was going to pop.

Constantly belching black fumes and eternally raging like a turbulent sea of rust, The Fire Brethren exists just to remind me of how wicked and evil the metal genre can be. ‘Underworld Vociferations’ is a nightmarish holocaust that grinds feverishly to its own maddening seizures. The riffs are toxic whirlwinds blown further by the ashen-clogged vocalisations which form an extra layer of grey silt. ‘Sulphur From The Heavens’ provides a respite, in spite of weighing in at seven and a half minutes, but the riffs are slightly less torrential than the aforementioned cuts, instead it’s more of a methodical bluster… but not for long.

There’s always an ever-present menace, something so nefarious lurking and waiting to pounce and when it does it’s like a relentless teeming burning rain, cast down with utter fury and hate. Sure, Abominator injects a few less abrasive segments, but they still crackle with dread and then you get incinerated by ‘Desolation Epoch’. If anything, it’s the percussive torrents which cause most harm, battering the flesh akin to freezing hailstones frantically peppering a window. Although the vocals on the title track seem more controlled, the riffs and drums still remain busy in their hateful course.

Driven by satanic fuel, The Fire Brethren has scalded me severely with each listen to the point that it’s taken me a few days to let the wounds crust over. It was rock legend Bon Scott of AC/DC who once yelped that “Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be”, but if they play Abominator down there then I’d rather be tapping on the Pearly Gates when my time comes.

Neil Arnold

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