Each writer here in the Hall has their own ritual for fishing new promo from the sump. Some utter incantations to eldritch gods. Some engage in druidic rites under the full moon. Some offer blood sacrifices to our Ape Overlord and heed the direction of the splatters. While my own ritual is a closely guarded secret, I can tell you that Verdun’s genre tag, “blackened dissonant sludge,” bypassed all ritual requirements. I swiped the French four-piece’s third LP so fucking fast I got dizzy. Of course, the genre tags we glean from labels’ promo language have no objective connection to quality or reality. Does Abyssal Womb deliver the promised goods, or is it just another case of hollow hyperbole?

Abyssal Womb marks a substantial departure from Verdun’s earlier work. 2014 debut The Eternal Drift’s Canticles used the same crushing, long-form structures as Cough or Warhorse. In 2019, sophomore effort Astral Sabbath saw the band experiment more heavily with abrasive and blackened textures, but it would take seven years for those elements to be fully realized. On Abyssal Womb, Verdun is still fundamentally a sludge band—and has the groove to prove it—but they’ve dispensed with much of the atmospherics and psychedelia of previous releases in favor of a darker and more direct sound. Roughly 15 minutes shorter than its predecessors, Abyssal Womb gets in, delivers grit, groove, and unease in equal measures, then makes like a tree and fucking leaves.

Where blackened dissonance served as a decoration on Astral Sabbath, it suffuses nearly every second of Abyssal Womb. Whether vocalist David Sadok rasps in French (“La Lame et la Chair,”¹ “Les Noces du Néant”²) or in English, he’s malevolently caustic. What surprised me most was how much more terrifying he is in French. The rhythm section often sways between exhausted, blackened plodding (“Silent Witness”), macabre processions (“Funeral of the Cosmic Knight,” “Rise of the Atomic Ghouls”), and sludgy grooves (“He Who Killed the Devil”), but Jay Pinelli’s strident leads curdle blood at every opportunity. Even when I know it’s coming, his dreadful solo in “Funeral of the Cosmic Knight” sends shivers down my spine, reminding me of the primal fear in Primitive Man’s Observance. This is one of my favorite moments on the album, along with the imperious march on the back half of “Rise of the Atomic Ghouls.” Drummer Geraud Jonquet violently punctuates Pinelli’s stomping, palm-muted chugs in a way that feels like I’m ascending the steps to the gallows.

There’s plenty to praise on Abyssal Womb. Unsettling blackened plucking opens “Silent Witness.” Florian Celdran’s bass cleverly caresses the gaps between sustained chords in “La Lame et la Chair,” and Verdun weaves a few surprisingly emotive passages through the album (“Funeral of the Cosmic Knight,” “The Man Behind My Eyes”). “Les Noces du Néant” opens on a powerful sadboi doom riff that resurfaces throughout, and the track serves as a great closer, leaving me suitably unsettled, anxious, and unsafe. There’s less to critique, but there is some. “The Man Behind My Eyes” feels like a low point, failing to coalesce as well as the rest of Abyssal Womb. There’s a bafflingly non-sequitous noir-shaded bass solo in “He Who Killed the Devil,” and several tracks shoot past ideal endings in favor of dedicated outros or reprisals (“Silent Witness,” “He Who Killed the Devil,” “The Man Behind My Eyes”). None of these are dealbreakers—or even close—but they can briefly shake me out of Abyssal Womb’s immersion.

I rolled the dice on Verdun, declining to listen to advance tracks or previous output and trusting in the genre tag alone. This strategy doesn’t normally yield the best results, but it certainly paid off here. Abyssal Womb sees Verdun venturing deep into unknown waters and dredging up something dark and grisly, something that sets the teeth on edge. Abyssal Womb isn’t without its faults, but they’re not calamitous, nor do they overly detract from the band’s exciting new direction. If Verdun’s trajectory is any indication—and I hope it is—Abyssal Womb could be the first few steps toward something buried even deeper in the lightless abyss.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Official | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: June 26th, 2026

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