Echelon – Indulgence Over Abstinence Behind The Obsidian Veil

After hitting us with a double whammy with two albums in just under two years, Down Among The Dead Men front man David Ingram and Guitarist Rogga Johansson unleash yet another project Echelon. After having some sets of lyrics that didn’t quite fit D.A.T.D.M and the fact that Rogga seems to constantly be writing the pair have put together “Indulgence Over Abstinence Behind The Obsidian Veil”.

At first I was curious to see the difference between the two projects. First off the lyrics are more of a satanic theme and musically this a much more traditional death metal album and the crust/hardcore punk influence in D.A.T.D.M is put aside.  It has a lot of dark melodies and leads throughout and brings to mind that dirty, nasty feeling death metal had back in the early 90’s it has that Swedish sound found on early Entombed and Dismember albums and in fact it does bring to mind classic Benediction! This album can easily sit beside “The Dreams You Dread” or “Transcend The Rubicon”.

The songs are extremely infectious and dare I say it catchy for instance the track 'Echelon' with its whispered chorus and the deliciously dark solo or the twisted 'Carnal Absolution'. I always had Rogga Johansson down as a shredder but his lead work on this album is superb.

If you already know Down Among The Dead Men you need to hear this just to hear the other side of the spectrum alone, what’s so brilliant about this album is how simple it is. Where many bands today are spending a fortune on production and out playing each other Echelon have come along and proven all you need is to simply write songs!

This album is doom laden, its dark, its melodic it’s varied and above all its crushing and it rocks like a bastard! This album is the equivalent to watching a string of modern horror films; take saw, hostel, insidious and then watching a classic hammer horror and seeing the winning formula was there all along!


  1. Adversary
  2. Ever Forwards
  3. Carnal Absolution
  4. Cadre
  5. Echelon
  6. Indulgence Over Abstinence Behind The Obsidian Veil
  7. The Impious Of The Perverse
  8. Regenerative Genesis