Brace yourselves because the latest twisted slab of doom-laden brutal Death Metal from Static Abyss is about to be unleashed in the shape of studio album number three, The Dying Hunt. This time around, Greg Wilkinson (guitars and bass) and Chris Reifert (vocals) are joined by Necrot’s Chad Gailey covering drum battery.
Static Abyss – The Dying Hunt
Release Date: 28 August 2026
Words: Jools Green
Musically, as always, it is a crushingly insane meld of Death Metal alongside elements of Crust and Doom, thereby once more covering the full Metal onslaught spectrum.
The Dying Hunt finds Static Abyss lyrically reflecting “the ailing world and the unravelling of the psyche of its inhabitants in this darkly dystopian landscape, for a masterful descent into sick elements.”
The album opens with the short, sharp Skull Blasted, which erupts with such insane fury you literally feel like you are being skull blasted. In between the crushingly insane torrents are superbly eerie and unnerving swathes that give this piece a very engaging edge.
The eerie edge continues with Lobotomized At Last, a hugely catchy piece. I love the distant and echoing edge to most of the vocals, which take on a more deranged edge where the pace ramps up to an insane and frantic delivery. A track packed with unnerving atmosphere.
Title track, The Dying Hunt, opens on an addictive groove punctuated with Chris’ snarling vocals. Then, in dramatic contrast, it plummets to eerie, doomy depths. These two extremes repeat across the track to make the format for this hugely engaging piece, much of which is due not just to these extreme contrasts but Chris’ expressive delivery. The closing drum work is decidedly decent too.
Another short, sharp shock is Wall Of Delusion, eighty seconds of superb-sounding driving insanity.
There are some superb song titles on this album, but Once A Corpse (Always A Corpse) wins my prize for best title. It is a phrase I definitely need to work into conversations. Musically, it gradually builds and creeps up on you, then breaks into a full frenzy, resplendent with deranged and growling vocals and superbly searing riffs.
Overall, it’s a marauding pounder of a piece once it reaches full pace and once more boasts some great closing drum work.
Bleeding In The Fog mixes the eerie with the exotic in its repeat opening riffing, with the eerie element continuing as it progresses. Powerfully punctuated with Chris’ expressively deranged vocal delivery, I do like the unexpected twists in pace and direction across this piece too. It holds your interest firmly.
I love the extreme contrasts of Sinew Leech. It has a superb mix of eerie repeating riffs and intense blasts infused with a rapid vocal delivery, along with bleak, doom-laden drops that are filled with cavernous, protracted vocals and blood-curdling screams.
Riff-wise, Nowhere Forever eerily echoes out of its predecessor and is again contrasted with intense vocal-infused blasts of riffing, but with a slightly more hypnotic delivery. I do like the very haunting, bleak atmosphere that permeates this piece.
Defleshed And Forlorn opts for a more standard drive. But obviously it is not going to stay at just that. The intense swathes that permeate it have Greg’s trademark intense and complex riffing style rammed into them in huge quantities. It is a superbly filthy listen.
Penultimate piece Volcanic Womb is an immediate assault on the senses as wave after wave of driving riffs and drum battery come at you, punctuated with a brutal vocal delivery. Then one minute in, it drops to bleak doomy depths where cavernous vocals echo forth and slow, ominous riffs build in intensity, instigating a slow climb to the close. A magnificently dramatic piece.
Darkness At The End Of The Light is a dramatic closer. Opening on slow sonic blasts and rhythmic riffs, building and harbouring some pretty sexy bass lines and haunting guitar rhythms, twisting and turning like an evil beast at the arrival of the powerfully protracted vocal delivery.
Then midway through, in true Chris and Greg style, it turns briefly fast and manic, with the vocals becoming deranged, then resuming the original crushing crawling pace to the close.
Static Abyss release The Dying Hunt on 28 August 2026 via Peaceville. Available as a CD, vinyl and digital download, for more details, visit peaceville.com/bands/staticabyss.
