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Track Listing: The Age of Ruin Pixilated Ignorance In Service of Time Rapture Renowned Our Primitive Nature Perpetual Dormancy Leveling the Plane of Existence Manufactured Humanity My Own Savior The Sleeper Awakens

Los Angeles death metal outfit Abysmal Dawn is ready with its third full-length studio release. They are a band that has gained tremendous popularity not only in the LA underground metal scene, but also in other parts of the U.S., based purely on the strength of their first two albums "From Ashes" and "Programmed To Consume". They had laid low for the most part of 2010 in order to write and record "Leveling The Plane Of Existence", and I'm more than interested in finding out what they have come up with.

"The Age Of Ruin" is a slow and quiet build up and acts as an intro to the album, an ominous sign of the brutality that's to ensue. "Pixilated Ignorance" is the first instance of exactly that, an extremely heavy and ear-crushing composition, a tune all death metal fans should easily be able to appreciate. Although this song is more about the heavy riffs and vocals rather than the solos, the guitar solo does fit the song perfectly. "In Service Of Time" is a slower, more drawn out but equally heavy follow-up that should make for a great live tune. It's followed by "Rapture Renowned" which offers a lot of the same, but its standout feature is the extended guitar harmony that forms its major chunk because of which I enjoy this song quite a lot.

"Our Primitive Nature" is a brief solo percussion piece that comes in as the mid-point of the album, after which "Perpetual Dormancy" serves as a complete contrast and revolves around the guitar riffs and solos, another track in which Charles Elliott and his bandmates have proven themselves as hugely talented musicians. The title track serves as an apt follow-up with some brutal vocals and nicely crafted guitar harmonies. It's a very full-sounding track and presents all components of the music in an excellent manner. "Manufactured Humanity" is yet another brilliantly composed track and its ruthlessness leaves absolutely no respite for the listener's ears. "My Own Savior" is a much slower track but sounds even heavier as a result, a great change-up from its predecessor. The guitar solo is simply awesome, and creates quite a dark atmosphere when combined with the rhythm guitar, bass and drums. The album closes out with "The Sleeper Awakens", a crushing epic in every sense. This is a track that should appeal to not only death metal purists, but also fans of progressive death metal bands such as Opeth.

Overall, this is Abysmal Dawn's best effort to date and an album that every death metal fan should find to his or her liking. Even though I am rating this as a 8.5 out of 10 for the moment, it's the kind of album that has the potential to grow even further on me and may turn out to be a 9 or a 9.5 in the near future. The band already has a North American tour lined up as support to Canadian death metal masters Kataklysm, and I can't wait to see what these new songs bring to their live show.

A top-notch effort that makes me a proud LA metalhead, "Leveling The Plane Of Existence" is 39 relentless minutes of music that has the potential to blow away everything that hinders its path and level the plane of its existence.