Much has been written (and speculated) about Sweden's most infamous contribution to the black metal scene. Spewing forth in 1990 and eventually reaching pioneering kult status within the Satanic Black Circle whilst becaming mainstays on Euronymous' Deathlike Silence label (the late Mayhem guitarist calling them nothing less than "the audial essence of pure black evil"); Abruptum stand out from most tired black metal acts simply for the fact that they sound like a screaming noisecore band rather then the usual necrowizard dreck. Supposedly recorded live and unrehearsed while they were self-mutilating, their first two demos (1990's Hextum Galæm Zeloq!!! and The Satanist Tunes) and 1991's Evil 7" are compiled on 2007's incredible Evil Genius CD. Remastered, they sound incredible when compared to their cassette-hiss original releases. Booming, chanting drums thunder through the echo chamber while IT rambles off his Latin musings. Who knows what anyone is doing with the guitar or what actually separates one song from another but that's part of the ritualistic bliss. Interestingly, IT responded in 2006 to the bevy of internet claims about his old band...
"Hate & worship...
In all honesty perhaps the latter is a somewhat more frequent manifestation of the feelings people all around this world experience, tuning into the odd experience of listening to Abruptum. An artist is a seeker, relentlessly emerging and expressing assorted parts of him or herself through a materialistic point of view, be it poetry, painting, music or any other ways to reveal our “inner beings” to this flesh.
Some 17 years ago I was in a unfathomable hunt for certain parts, veiled within the foundation of myself, prying ever deeper to conjure up my personal anguish, hate, desire and the gloomy, spiteful darkness, lurking profound within my corporeal shell. For me, this journey was an essential component of my own evolution, one of the paths to discover what some people may call “utter hell”. Recording this pursuit was a task I chose, not for the somewhat more ordinary causes of recording and album, but purely as a purpose to alter into and transmit this energy right back to myself, thus being able to mirror the matter, reaching even further along this dark road.
In a sense “inquisitiveness” was a trigger not only to investigate deeper into the substance, but also one of the reasons why I chose the share these journeys with other persons, for in a search it is wise to be capable viewing things from a wider perception, thus consulting our “neighboring” energies of their opinions and experiences with this matter.
In sense Abruptum has distorted from a personal quest to “seek for the unholy grail”, to stories manifold, practiced and told to me in letter, mails or in personal conversations that I’ve had with people through all these years. It has been a precious tool for the many, looking for whatever they used the substance for, be it a pure session of listening, for religious ceremonies, a soundtrack for lust and sex, for self torture and self mutilation…
When first Psychoslaughter Records, and later my friend Euronymous and his Deathlike Silence Productions, offered to release some parts of these Journeys, it was not in my consideration to share as in a regular sense of musicianship. In fact, though this is an obvious fact for the majority, Abruptum is NOT in any ways music, something that for reasons I never grasped, I have had to point out time yet time again.
“The essence of pure black evil” may be a way to illustrate it, as Euronymous formerly put it, but for me these recordings are journals of certain journeys of whatever has been my individual and personal “evil”. With Abruptum I have toiled to conjure up and beckon my wrathful demons, befriend them and compose them to an utterly natural element of myself.
To the mass consumer, facts as “IT tortured himself in the studio” or “these are sessions of occult rituals, forbidden mysterious arts recorded” may be ways of selling points, but the sincerely curious mind will unearth that the quintessence of this experience lies in the individual quest one might practice throughout the sinister voids of Abruptum.
Last time this material was released, compiled in the form of a CD titled Evil Genius, it bore a sticker on the cover saying “Includes Razorblade, KILL YOURSELF” and within the booklet one could locate such a device. This exhortation could be simple as this, get rid of your physical structure, but also in a more poetic sense we can decipher this to the cutting and killing of that which was “you” previous to listening to it.
Why the “Latin only” lyrics? Unquestionably for the plain reason that the composition and atmosphere fuses to the form in the only way viable for me, and because we find this language been used in occult practices of a fairly near past. In any case, this is the legacy of something that has become legendary and cult, something that will indisputably never cease to bring us more questions than answers, even so for myself because of the “surreal” states of energy I traveled upon has left numerous blank spaces within my recollection.
This is blood, chaos, fornication and various acts beyond where most will ever dare to venture. The only thing truly within my power is to bid you welcome, take a step ahead and plunge yourself into this abyss. Keep in mind that you do so at your own peril, we take no responsibility for any actions that may spring from this source of utter obscurity.
May you be Gods of creation, not creations of stagnation.
Darkness IT will be,
IT, November 2006
Post Scriptum: Our self image, identity and control of ourselves, points out the sole factual face of the enemy within us…"
Well, that about sums it up. Check out the hate.
10/6/14 update: Great new rip of the original Hellspawn Records CD release just in time for the Day Of Bad Omens (Dies Ater for those still speaking Latin folk out there). Try to enjoy...
