Abbath: One of the last true unhinged geniuses of heavy metal, or the stumbling, befuddled gumby we all know and love from that fan-filmed Metal Days Clip?

I’d like to think the answer lies somewhere in the middle, although the term ‘befuddled gumby’ is a bit harsh to use with respect to someone who was at least in part responsible for albums like Immortal‘s Pure Holocaust and the superb, one-off I album, Between Two Worlds. And there are certainly enough good moments on the man’s new solo outing, Dread Reaver, to suggest that the method still outweighs the madness, for the most part. So maybe I’ll have to revise my position…

Tracks like the pounding, ravenous Scarred Core and album standout Myrmidon are easily amongst the best things Abbath has set his name to in a long, long time; the former is absolutely the refinement and natural apotheosis of Norwegian black metal’s Venom obsession, a vicious assault on the senses that rewards repeated and very loud listens, whilst the latter is a stonking piece of melody-inflected metal that brings out Abbath’s not-so-latent Gene Simmons tendencies to good effect; elsewhere our hero throws in a chaotic reading of Metallica‘s Trapped Under Ice, and the combination of these three tracks is nothing so much as a distillation of Olve Eikemo‘s very metallic essence; Consequently Dread Reaver becomes, as a Masterchef contestant might have it, ‘Abbath on a Plate’ – and whoda thunk that would have been such an appetising proposition?

Joking aside, there’s a huge amount to like about Abbath’s latest outing as a solo entity; As a larger-than-life character criticism largely bounces off of him as so much sniping from lesser mortals, but there’s enough of substance on Dread Reaver to suggest that Eikemo might actually be an artist to treasure moving forward – and perhaps ultimately to take seriously – again, whoda thunk it? Not me, that’s for sure, but then I hadn’t heard the epic The Deep Unbound, then…

With the old Gods continuing to drop at an alarming rate, heavy metal needs new heroes, and, if Abbath still needs a little more consistency to fulfill that role truly convincingly moving forward, this is a big enough step up to suggest he’s more than up to the task. He’ll need clam heads around him – maybe those supplied by bassist Mia Wallace and guitarist Ole André Farstad, both of whom provide sterling support throughout …Reaver – but it’s a task he’s more than up to achieving. Let’s hope he pulls it off.

Dread Reaver releases on March 25th.