Abyss

Abyss, released in 2004, is the fourth album — self-financed after the band reformed — and their last to date. It was recorded in May and June 2003 at the Warehouse Studio in Oxford, produced by Steve Watkins, whose raw but sensitive picture catches the band's melody well. Grimmett's voice and Ian Nash's guitar stand at the front, and the record turns almost entirely on the two of them. “Screaming,” “Nightmare,” “I'm Alive” and “Abyss” are the faster melodic hard rockers; “I Need Love” and “If You Cut Me” are ballads. The bluesy mid-tempo of “Save Me” was likened to Whitesnake. Twelve songs. Even once finished it had to wait nearly a year for a serious label to take it on. North America got it through Metaledge, the rest of the world through Frontiers. The Japanese edition adds “Only When I Sleep.” Grimmett, incidentally, lost his right leg below the knee in January 2017 to an aggressive infection contracted in Ecuador; by April he was walking on a prosthetic, and in July he was back on stage in a wheelchair. He died on 15 August 2022, aged 62.