ABBOT - Between our Past and Future Lives

I first heard Abbot on the Soggy Bog of Doom podcast what feels like ages ago. I didn't rush out to rent a plane to fly over their houses and douse them in money, but they made a strong enough impression on me that when I saw this album up on bandcamp, I had to drop everything and check it out. I don't remember the song I heard on Soggy Bog, but I remembered that it was different. However else the band has progressed in the ensuing two or three years, they stick to that uniqueness like a little brother wanting to be shown the way to the mystery. Anyway, this album almost passed me by. It's gone a bit under the radar, maybe because of the unassuming cover, I can't be sure, but I'm glad I eventually found it. This is iconoclasm in action. Abbot carefully charts their influences and blogs about them, most of the names on their list will be familiar to you, how it all comes together might not be. But that's not a bad thing. This is very unique stuff, Les Claypool-like vocals with hard driving riffs and high energy that isn't entirely unlike Egypt. Now if you can imagine Primus and Egypt combined, you're getting close to the kind of idiosyncracy you'll find here. It's hard to imagine any fan of classic hard rock and proto-metal turning these guys away once they've heard Abbot. You can hear them on the player below: