AVOWALS

"Avowals" is a split release between the three Spanish, Galicia based metal/hardcore acts Absorbed, Dismal and Unnatural. The split was released by Man Records in 1994.

The three bands represent three different musical styles. Absorbed play a technical/progressive death metal style in the vein of Atheist and especially the Italiens in Sadist comes to mind. Dismal play hardcore while Unnatural play death metal. The former and the latter both have four tracks featured on the split while Dismal have six tracks featured. Absorbed are probably the most interesting act on the split and they are quite well playing too. The sound quality isn't that great though and this mostly sounds like demo material. You do get the general idea that especially Absorbed have a lot of interesting ideas, that could probably have been worked on and developed into something great with better time in a studio.

"Avowals" might not be the most interesting release today, but back in 1994 it was pretty interesting to hear bands from that part of the world (yeah metal from Spain was once considered pretty exotic), and all three of them do a decent job here. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.