Band:	Ad Infinitum
Album:	Abyss
Style:	Alternative metal
Release date:	October 11, 2024
A review by:	musclassia

01. My Halo
02. Follow Me Down
03. Outer Space
04. Aftermath
05. Euphoria
06. Surrender
07. Anthem For The Broken
08. The One You'll Hold On To
09. Parasite
10. Dead End

When I reviewed the previous Ad Infinitum album, I managed to ham-fistedly work all their album titles to date into a somewhat apt intro describing the band’s journey to date. Unfortunately, Abyss also reflects their current trajectory, as this new record sees Ad Infinitum’s quality sink to painful depths.

It would perhaps be inaccurate to say that Abyss represents the band in ‘mask off’ mode, seeing as the cover of Chapter III: Downfall already had the previously plague doctor mask-adorned instrumentalists of the group showing off their faces in all their glory. However, the decision to abandon the whole ’Chapter’ heading for each record does truly close the book on Ad Infinitum’s early story, one that began with grandiose renaissance-themed symphonic metal and quickly transitioned towards a more accessible and modern-appearing alternative metal sound. Any hint of symphonic metal origins has been snuffed out on Abyss, which is, for lack of a better description, a pop metal album.

Now, a tag such as that is already going to inspire some murmuring even before we get stuck into the minutiae of the music due to kneejerk reactions to 'pop' as a genre label. It’s not really a surprising destination for Ad Infinitum, as even back on Chapter II: Legacy, the guest presence of Amaranthe’s Nils Molin heralded a shift towards more immediate and catchy writing that was further expanded upon on the following album. When reviewing both those records, while I voiced my disappointment at the rapid departure from the style of Chapter I: Monarchy that I found so captivating, I recognized the aptitude that Ad Infinitum were largely demonstrating for writing music in this vein, and felt that they had every chance of rivalling or exceeding the efforts of Amaranthe, arguably the poster children of ‘guilty pleasure’ pop-oriented metal in the past decade.

Having said all that... I must confess that I really do not like Abyss at all. Part of that may be down to what I would hope ‘pop metal’ to translate to; at their best (think The Nexus and Massive Addictive), Amaranthe’s writing was ‘cheesy’, yes, but it was infectious, energetic and fun. In contrast, I do not find Abyss to be a fun album; honestly, parts of it feel a bit cynical. Stylistically, the writing, at least of the vocal melodies, probably does have more in common with actual post-2000 chart pop than Amaranthe or similar acts, but instrumentally, with the absence of symphonics and a substantial electronic presence, the alternative metal/metalcore-lite song structuring seems to follow the trail blazed by Bring Me The Horizon and their many followers (I suspect the “bunch of fucking animals” chorus refrain in the song “Surrender” is an intentional nod to Architects).

The sound described above will certainly find enjoyers in numbers, but having seen where Ad Infinitum have come from thus far, even compared with Chapter III: Downfall it feels like a fairly drastic and dubious stylistic leap, and the songs it produces I find broadly difficult to find value in. From the first seconds of “My Halo” and the irritating effects-laden vocal motif that reappears throughout, there’s little to enjoy here; yes, Melissa Bonny remains a hugely talented singer, and there’s moments in the verse where she manages to bring sufficient gravitas to almost get me engaged, but the chorus ultimately makes no mark, the instrumentation is bland, and the breakdown (despite all other moves towards accessibility, harsh vocals are still frequently employed on Abyss) falls incredibly flat.

The album is not a trainwreck; there are elements, or even partial songs, that draw some degree of attention. Probably the highlight track is “The One You’ll Hold On To”, an up-tempo romper with powering, groovy riffs, an effective emotional resonance, and memorably catchy vocal hooks. In addition, there’s a fairly exciting riff to kick off “Follow Me Down” that gets decent use throughout, a rather pleasant solo in “Euphoria”, and “Anthem For The Broken” features some of the most effectively integrated heaviness on the record. On top of all of this, there’s also enough moments throughout when Bonny’s talent and capacity for ear-catching melody work their charm; “Follow Me Down” has some of the better hooks on the album vocally as well as instrumentally, and “Anthem For The Broken” is also a fairly satisfyingly catchy effort.

Yet even with all of that, there’s plenty on the negative side to outweigh it. After pulling off a surprisingly decent ballad-ish song last time out with “Somewhere Better”, “Euphoria” goes in too heavily on the electronics and vocal effects and misses the mark for me (solo aside). Beyond that, there’s too many moments that feel like a poor man’s version of modern Architects (who are already the poor man’s version of good Architects), the glitch-heavy “Outer Space” and “Aftermath” encapsulate everything that I’ve found off-putting about Spiritbox’s output from Eternal Blue onwards, with bland song structuring and flat breakdowns, and “Surrender” really misses the mark in trying to mesh the most quirky electropop parts of the album with its heaviest breakdowns.

I’m trying not to channel Principal Skinner too much in writing this review; Abyss will absolutely find an audience, and it’s far too easy to write off a musical shift towards a more commercially accessible sound as a negative one just because it’s not what I’m accustomed to in my everyday listening. However, this new album really does incorporate a lot of my least favourite elements of the modern popular metal scene, and having followed Ad Infinitum’s journey so far, it disappoints me to see them not only leave behind what was an immensely promising first sound on their debut album, but to also surrender the charm that they were still able to incorporate into the more accessible songs on their subsequent records. Aside from the chance to continue listening to Bonny’s compelling voice, I’m struggling to hear much in Abyss that would appeal to people who got into the band via any of their previous releases, so I hope for the group’s sake that this new approach pulls in the new audience they were seemingly seeking.