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ABRUPTUM - vi sonus veris nigrae malitiaes CD | ||||||||||||||
| Though they
bore little sonic resemblance to their peers at the time, the story of
black metal cannot be told without reference to Abruptum. Founded in
1989 by Tony IT Särkkä, a pillar of the early Swedish scene who,
in addition to Abruptum, also played in Opthamalia and Vondur, among
other bands, Abruptum rode the crest of black metals second wave.
With their debut album on Deathlike Silence Productions carrying the
catalog number Anti-Mosh 04, Abruptum was one of the first
bandspreceded only by Merciless and Mayhemto appear on the label
that would come to define black metal and export it outside of
Scandinavia. Even back then, Särkkäs credentials were
unimpeachable. Before forming Abruptum, he had been in bands with his
high school friend Dan Swanö, who later formed Edge of Sanity and
opened Unisound Studio, and who credits Särkkä for guiding him into
the more extreme corners of the underground scene. Abruptum had little
in common with the furious riffs and blast beats that typically
characterized the genre; Abruptum was more an entity, a presence, than
a band. The audial essence of pure black evil, an expression,
attributed to Euronymous, that adorns some of the bands album
covers, captures the intent of Abruptum. In many respects, the
formlessness of their music conjures a darker atmosphere than more
traditional black metal, which still bears remnants of the rock music
from which it evolved. Abruptum, by contrast, was a ritualistic
distillation of the genres core elements. Like a dissected cadaver,
splayed with its organs excised and isolated, Abruptum deconstructed
black metal and recontextualized it. In this way, Abruptum, perhaps
more than any other band, demonstrated that the fundamental essence of
black metal is defined not by style or sound, but by intention and
disposition. By the time they released their third full-length album
Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes, in 1996, on Full Moon
Productions, IT had parted ways with ALL and recorded the album alone.
With Vi Sonus
, IT pushed Abruptum to new extremes, cultivating a
sound that is cold, opaque, and lifeless. The album also marked an
inflection point for Abruptum, for soon after the release of Vi
Sonus
, IT recruited Morgan Evil Håkansson, best known as the
guitarist and founding member of Marduk. The two collaborated on one
EP together, after which Håkansson took over the project and has
remained the lone custodian of Abruptum ever since, maintaining the
bands legacy, even after Särkkäs death in 2017. NWN! is honored
to present this new edition of Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes,
ITs ultimate expression of pure black evil.
Tracks:
Genres: Ambient, Black Metal GPSR
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