Absinthium hail from Italy and have a past as interesting, troubled and uplifting as that of their home country.
Formed in 2003, the five-piece swapped three members for new recruits in 2006. In 2007, their vocalist sadly died of leukaemia after a prolonged illness. With a new singer, they recorded much of the material he had written as a tribute.
After releasing their first album, One For The Road, in 2012 a further line-up change occurred for personal reasons to give the current band. Bands can survive worse – Sabaton recently swapped out four members in one go and never sounded better!
They bill themselves as “heavy thrash … but open to other contaminations” which is a nice way of saying they don’t want to go down one path. They’re not as fast-paced as many thrash acts, definitely more on the heavy side. I’d maybe say an early Anthrax kind of sound, but paced more like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden.
With nice clear vocals and a steady, crunching rhythm their music is very listen-to-able. The steady, head-nodding segments are nicely broken up with a speedy solo here and there. Yup, good stuff.
The best place to check them out is either facebook or Reverbnation. I’ve popped the video for “Circular Saw” below as well. It’s a decent example of their music and has a good mixture of styles in it.
Related articles
- ABSINTHIUM – New Line-Up Complete (bravewords.com)
