Abel Blood
Manchester, New Hampshire, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2021
Music
Press
Abel Blood – Keeping Pace With The Elephants
Self released – 2021
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Doom
Rated: ****
It’s a Name Your Price album over on bandcamp; and it will forever be worth more than you will pay for it. There, we’ve said it. Indeed. And now what? Now, we keep returning to the five-track debut release by New Hampshire three called Abel Blood. It’s called Keeping Pace With The Elephants and its an uncut diamond of stoner and doom metal beauty. The drawling, speaking vocals, leave a big mark on the title track and give it this extra intriguing edge. The same can be said for the funny titled opening track The Day That Moby Died. But it’s not just the sparsely doses vocals that set this release apart. There are also those tiny parks of post punk and almost kraut influences that highlight the otherwise grimy, almost lo-fi rock that is coursing through the veins of Abel Blood. Motifs and riffs seem to translate something forlorn; like a lone figure standing in the rural or urban landscape. Waiting for the sky to fall, the Elephants to pass by and for this stoner noirscape recording to stop tingling the spine. Good, great, almost defiantly majestic! - Stoner HiVe
One does not evoke elephantine images on a heavy record, even on a debut release, if aural largesse isn’t a factor. New Hampshire trio Abel Blood — guitarist/vocalist Adam Joslyn, bassist Ben Cook, drummer Jim DeLuca — are raw in sound on their first EP, Keeping Pace with the Elephants, but the impact with which they land “The Day that Moby Died” at the outset is only encouraging, and to be sure, it’s not the thickest of their wares either. “Enemies” already pushes further, and as centerpiece “UnKnown Variant” would seem to date the effort in advance, it also serves the vital function of moving the EP in a different, more jangly, grungier direction, which is a valuable move with the title cut following behind, its massive cymbals and distorted wash building to a head in time for the nine-minute finale “Fire on the Hillside” to draw together both sides of the approach shown throughout into a parabolically structured jam the middle-placed surge of which passes quickly enough to leave the listener unsure whether it ever happened. They’re messing with you. Dig that. - The Obelisk
TheOutlourdes666 Just saw them live last night! Super unique doom/stoner metal. Catchy and at times groovy riffs are backed up by low heavy bass at times and other times the bass is jumping way up with the guitars to make sick fills that compliment the drummers doomy beats! Reaches far beyond normal stoner and doom to make awesome music that can further be explained by listening to it. -
http://stonerking1.blogspot.com/2023/09/abel-blood-arrival-of-waves-review.html - Desert Phychlist
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Bio
Seeking a creative outlet during the long, strange months of the Covid-19 quarantine, Adam Joslyn (guitar, vocals) reached out to Jimmy DeLuca (drums) in the summer of 2020, to see if he was up for some social-distanced jamming. Friends since high school, the two previously played together in the early Nineties in the groove metal band No Thanks, albeit in totally different capacities, with DeLuca handling vocals and Joslyn playing bass.
After a few jams together and a spark ignited, they realized they had something good going and needed to bring in a third to handle the low end, and Adam knew just who to call. A few years earlier, while searching for someone to jam together on some acoustic songs he had written, Josyln had met Ben Cook through a Craigslist ad. While playing those mellower tunes they discovered a shared love of stoner rock and heavy psych music. Due to busy and changing lives, their jam sessions came to end, but they remained in touch, attending concerts and chatting about music.
With Ben jumping onboard in September of 2020, the creative juices really started flowing and Abel Blood was born. Songs came together quickly, and Abel Blood self-released their debut EP, Keeping Pace With the Elephants in March 2021.
In 2022, Abel Blood decided to expand and recruited local singer/guitarist Malcolm Salls, which has brought the band to a whole new level. Sadly, also in 2022, bassist Ben Cook, gracefully stepped down to spend more time with his family. A follow up to their EP is scheduled to begin recording in Spring 2023.
Combining elements of Stoner Rock, Heavy Psych, Heavy Blues, and Doom, Abel Blood aims to get you out of your seat on your feet!
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