ABRUPTUM

• Genre(s): Black Metal
• Representative Albums: "Evil Genius," "VI Sonus Nigrae Malitaes," "Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me"



Swedish black metal group Abruptum is predominantly the work of a duo, the ubiquitously named It (screams, violin, drums) and Evil (guitars, sounds, piano), with occasional bit players rounding out the lineup as necessary. Responsible for what is quite simply among the most extreme heavy metal ever attempted, the group's "music" has stumped many an experienced metal head with its brutal devotion to sheer noise.

Formed in the late '80s by It, the concept of Abruptum took shape over a couple of 1990 demos (Abruptum and The Satanist Tunes), which were recorded by an ever shifting lineup including early mainstays All (vocals) and EXT (bass). Both would exit with the arrival of Evil, who joined in time for 1991's imaginatively named Evil EP and Orchestra of Dark demo. Gaining quick acceptance within the all-important underground tape-trading community, Abruptum's tortured black metal fury coupled with It's desperately shrill vocal delivery soon attracted the attention of Scandinavia's extreme metal godfather Euronymous; who issued their debut 1993 LP Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me through his Deathlike Silence imprint. A daunting exercise in raw, seemingly improvised aggression spliced with atmospheric sound effects, the album (containing a single song split into two 20-plus minute halves) served up a challenging, nearly impenetrable sonic avalanche. Possibly even more extreme was 1994's In Umbra Malitae Ambulabo, In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrarum, whose epic aspirations mirrored its extensive title; but which proved to be one of the last releases by their label, which folded following Euronymous' grisly murder that same year. Fittingly, Abruptum provided the lead-off track for 1995's Euronymous tribute album entitled Nordic Black Metal (also featuring the likes of Emperor and Marduk), then decided to take an extended break before resuming their career. Finally signing with the Head Not Found label in 1997, they unleashed their ambitious third effort, Vi Sonas Veris Nigrae Malitiaes; boasting another single, 60-minute black metal cacophony/symphony. Losing creative steam by this time, the band remained silent until the year 2000, when they released the odds-and-sods EP De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet.

History:

Abruptum was an avant-garde black metal and dark ambient band from Sweden formed in 1989 by IT (aka Tony Särkkä), All (aka Jim Berger), and Ext. IT had already planned to create the band in 1987, but it wasn't until 1990 that he found the right members to do it. The same year, they recorded their first two demos. After the release of the first demo, they sacked their bass player Ext. After the release of a 7-inch EP simply called Evil in 1991 (later re-released by Psychoslaughter), All began to drink heavily and was forced to leave the band IT then found a new member in Evil (aka Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson) of Marduk. Around this time, IT reunited with All to form the side project, Vondur. At the time, IT was one of the leaders within what was called the Satanic Black Circle, part of the Swedish Black metal scene.

Abruptum was signed to Euronymous's label Deathlike Silence Productions, on which they released two albums. Euronymous noted them as being "the audial essence of pure black evil", and IT considered Euronymous to be "a true ally." After Euronymous's murder, they would contribute the opening track to the compilation album Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous.

IT left the band and the black metal scene altogether in 1996, following numerous threats made to him and to his family. Evil kept Abruptum going and released material on his own record label, Blooddawn Productions, until 2005 when he announced that he had ended Abruptum.

Music Themes & Style

While Abruptum is classified as a black metal/dark ambient band, the band took a different approach to their music. They did not focus on creating any structured songs, and mostly just made noise. Earlier material had shorter songs but their later releases typically included one or two tracks with more than forty minutes of music. They primarily used standard drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and other various instruments, but what stood out even more was the screaming, as the band supposedly tortured and cut each other during their recordings. Whether this is true or not has never really been verified. This led to Euronymous' now (in)famous distinction of Abruptum as "The Audial Essence Of Pure Black Evil". After IT left the band, Evil changed the band's musical style to more dark ambient/noise and dropped most of the metal sound.

Members



• IT (Tony Särkkä) - Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Violin (1989-1996)
• Evil (Morgan Håkansson) - Guitars, Piano, Vocals, Programming (1991-2005)
• All (Jim Berger) - Vocals (1990-1991)
• Ext - Bass (1990)

Discography

• Abruptum (Demo, 1990)
• The Satanist Tunes (Demo, 1990)
• Evil (7" EP, 1991)
• Orchestra of Dark (Same as 'The Satanist Tunes' with additional 'Outro' added, 1991)
• Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me (Deathlike Silence Productions, 1993)
• In Umbra Malitae Ambulabo, In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrarum (Deathlike Silence Productions, 1994)
• Evil Genius (First Two Demos and 7" EP on one CD;[2] Hellspawn Records, 1995; remastered and re-reissued by Black Lodge Records and Southern Lord Records with a bonus track in 2007)
• Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous (Track Contribution: 'De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet', 1995)
• Vi Sonas Veris Nigrae Malitiaes (Full Moon Productions, 1996)
• De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet ('Nordic Metal' track + 2 Unreleased Tracks); Blooddawn Productions, 2000)
• Casus Luciferi (Blooddawn Productions, 2004)
• Maledictum (EP), 2008