Metalcatto
A band with a name referencing a place where millions of lives were pointlessly lost? It can’t be a relaxing one, right? Well, Verdun is exactly that: Sludge and Death Metal that creeps into you like some chronic pain you can’t shake. Even the album’s title, Abyssal Womb, prepares you for something that has to be nothing but dreadful. Because the label is Transcending Obscurity, I was expecting something incredibly technical or brutally fast, but that wasn’t exactly the case. Or well, it depends on how you see it. Let’s go.
Abyssal Womb has a truly unique style. I’ll give the album that. The only band that comes to mind is Primitive Man, but there are still vast differences here. This thing is way dirtier and more corrosive. It’s pretty hard to put labels on this style. Sure, there’s blasting and there’s crust, but at the same time, things walk more into the despair alley than the furious one. Having said that, you can judge this album by its cover, because it’s pretty descriptive of the absolute hopelessness it will inspire in your poor, tortured soul.
It’s not a simple task to tell you who gets to steal the show here, because what gets me the most about Abyssal Womb is how claustrophobic it feels. That’s not something carried by one instrument, but by every band member throwing at us the most disturbing stuff their hearts have gone through. The vocals are harrowing, the guitar tones are rancid. This thing has decadence written all over it, and probably all my adjectives are making you salivate like Pavlov’s dog right now. Yet, I’m going to put a stop to this madness before I drown in my own hyperbole.
Alright, there’s nothing particularly wrong with Abyssal Womb, aside from the fact that it will send your grandma to the hospital. But I must say that I would have enjoyed more memorable moments. The album does an excellent job creating this crushing atmosphere, but once I was done, the riffs didn’t exactly stick in my head. So I had to return, but not out of shock—just like Primitive Man, the music has such an inaccessible nature that you simply don’t get the earworm. It’s just pure punishment from start to finish, with no candy to soften the blows. That’s an artistic choice, but it also means the album is more respected than loved.
Either way, Verdun has crafted something idiosyncratic here. A challenge for those of you who are trying to find new ways to feel the brutality and heaviness of this cruel world. I’m just happy this isn’t another WWI-inspired band. That niche has been getting saturated fast lately. So if you long for something with more existential dread than historical reenactment, then this is the album to go for. Bring your patience and your antidepressants. You’ll need both.
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Release date: June 26th, 2026
Website: https://verdun-label.bandcamp.com/album/abyssal-womb
Country: France
Score: 3.5/5.0
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