Once, before I became a trve-metal warrior with the battle jacket, adorned with top-class corpse paint, I was a prog lover in high school. The djent wave was cresting right as I began really delving into music, and the hordes of technical, djenty bands with ultra-modern production and absurd quantities of melody remain dear to my heart, even if I rarely return to those albums overflowing with Sumerian aroma in my regular listening habits.
That’s why, when I saw the promo for Hiraeth, the 2nd album from Brazilian prog metallers Abstracted, with comparisons to The Contortionist, The Human Abstract and Between the Buried and Me, I couldn’t help but get a little excited at the prospect of newer music making use of those formative sounds. Abstracted have been a band since 2013 and their debut album, 2022’s Atma Conflux, was an effective and varied piece of djenty progressive death metal, marred by lukewarm production and not-quite-flawless clean vocals. Above all, though, it showed potential as a record full of ideas that were so close to becoming great. With Hiraeth, can the Brazilian band finally unify its influences into something more than the sum of its parts?
On Hiraeth, Abstracted display an in-depth understanding of modern progressive metal styles and incorporate them into something entirely their own. The band’s main sound is a version of modern progressive death metal with djent drive, closest to early The Contortionist, in its combination of odd-meter riffs, post-rock-influenced textures, and a tantalizing contrast between melancholic space-age cleans and technical six-string chugs. Abstracted balance this with more traditional classic prog twists and Haken-style jazz breaks (“Sirens”), fast Between the Buried and Me riff marathons (“To Quench This Insatiable Thirst”) and harmonic shades within darker moments à la Persefone (“Requiem”). The result is a varied and dynamic set of melodies that glide effortlessly between the striking riff-driven aggression and cathartic melodies. Songs like “The Utter End” and “The Barren Grave of God” demonstrate the band’s ability to move naturally from strength to strength without losing its rhythm, unfolding through extended guitar arpeggios, delightfully off-time breakdowns, virtuosic solos and powerful musical climaxes.
This level of fluidity and genre cohesion on Hiraeth is made possible only thanks to the high level of musicianship of the Abstracted display. Guitarists José Consani and Leonardo Brito give varied performances that successfully blend more djent-centric playing with classic death metal sensibilities and demonstrate keen melodic ears with dense jazz chords and powerful lead lines. Drummer Fernando Pollen combines Latin grooves with acrobatic modern metallic touches, and the more natural drum tone of the production allows his dynamic shades to guide many songs. On bass, Riverton Alves presents a thoroughly warm and jazz-based, cynical performance that shines in quieter moments, while keyboardist Carol Lynn provides plenty of atmosphere through subtle synth textures and steps into the foreground at times with idiosyncratic but effective synth lines reminiscent of Diego Tejeida. Together, this ensemble brings a lot of life to a style of music that can often seem overly processed, and their performances help unify this collection of songs into a cohesive whole.
The only elements of Hiraeth that don’t immediately impress are the vocals and the production. Rosano Pedro Matiussi gives a passionate performance, and his vocal lines often fit the songs well, but his clean singing lacks some intensity or personality to elevate the good moments into great ones. Initially, this was enough to stop me from really digging deeper and appreciating the songwriting on display, but the singing won me over quite a bit over time. Similarly, his death growls are solid, if not monotonous, and I feel they’re there more to fill a role than to emphasize specific points. This could potentially be a fault of the production, as Hiraeth generally sounds good and more natural than the overproduced pieces of modern prog, but it lacks a certain sonic clarity, occasionally making the particularly dense spots harder to parse. There’s a clear lack of reverb on the harsh vocals, and I can’t help but wonder if a stronger mix could fit a little better with the multi-layered clean singing. Matiussi’s vocals aren’t bad at all, and there are spots like the melancholic intro to “Requiem” where they sound great, but when everything else works at such a high level, they seem like a weak link.
With Hiraeth, Abstracted have delivered an impressive piece of modern progressive metal. This record is certainly one that evolves, with dense and multi-layered compositions that often reveal their clever construction and strong interconnection only after repeated spins. Even if the vocals leave a little room for improvement, the Brazilian band has successfully combined the sounds of several of the best modern prog bands into something thrilling and subtle.
Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Format reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio
Websites: abstractedmetal.bandcamp | facebook.com/abstractedbr
Releases worldwide: February 20, 2026
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The review was done by Angry metal guy.
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/abstracted-hiraeth-review/
