While the bands corrosive production edge has certainly been left to rust since their "Warship" days, the raw overdose of unfiltered riffing, bong shattering aggression and hungover Lemmy barks remain as menacing as ever. Having now graduated to Kemado Records, the Saviours may not be ready unseat The Sword or High On Fire as the current kings of the new wave of stoner metal; but they are definitely the prince next in line ready to take the throne by any means necessary.
Thanks to the production of Joe Barresi (Queens Of The Stone Age, Clutch), "Into Abaddon" comes off as the bands finest sounding effort to date. But even with the beefed up tones, there's still an indelible coarse edge here that increases the groups blunt force. This is especially noticeable as they rip out of some surprisingly ferocious leads and solos with a progressive undercurrent that eschews the dopey bell bottom stereotype for visceral lyrical imagery and primal ferocity.
Maturity is definitely beginning to set in though as the songs are not as overtly evil as they used to be and instead have more of an air of mysticism to them. But given the care they have put to these tracks rather than just grinding out a few catchy riffs, it works out well in the long haul. Amusingly there's also a pseudo lifting of the structure of Kansas' "Carry On My Wayward Son" present on the ending of "Narcotic Sea", which can probably subliminally be blamed on "Guitar Hero" - but even so the band do well to make it their own. Still, one can't help but think this album should have been titled out of abaddon as it's groups like Saviours who are finally guiding us all out of metalcore hell.
(4 / 5)
wookubus