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Swedish duo Abruptum (Marduk's multi-instrumentalist Morgan Håkansson and vocalist-guitarist Tony "IT" Särkkä),
a project that debuted with the EP Evil (1991),
specialized in exhausting improvised meandering trance-metal pieces.
The 51-minute Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me (1993)
begins with a gasping invocation wrapped in noise, which is followed by
free-form guitar feedback and disorganized drumming.
While guitar and drums continue to engage in that abstract cacophony,
the voice continues to emit shrieks and moans.
It's all lo-fi and feels largely improvised, but it still feels like
the soundtrack of a torture chamber. After
35 minutes of such "black noise" only thing left is the ticking of a clock
but the chaos soon restarts just like before.
The hour-long piece of In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrar (1994) is less the soundtrack of evil and more of a gothic nightmare.
The voice is often wandering alone in a hall of mirrors, attacked from every
side by hostile sounds. The pace is funereal. There are sections that
are subdued, just drumming and voice.
If the first album was certainly music (albeit dissonant and disorganized),
this second album is more like theater, a cross between the satanic glam-rock
of Kim Fowley, the "Rocky Horror Picture Show"
and an expressionist kammerspiel.
Alas, the piece loses momentum in the second half, especially the last 15 minutes, just when one would expect the knock-out punch.
The wildly self-indulgent
Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes (1996) is
61 minutes of rambling vocal sounds, percussive sounds and guitar sounds with
varying degrees is intensity.
The four extended pieces of Casus Luciferi (2004), recorded by Håkansson alone, are childish. For example,
Casus Luciferi is simply 19 minutes of
drones and loops.
Evil Genius (2007) collects old demos.
IT reformed Abruptum for the EP Malediction (2008) and the album
Potestates Apocalypsis (2011).
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(Translation by/Tradotto da Davide Carrozza)
Gli svedesi Abruptum (il polistrumentista Morgan Håkansson dei Marduk e il cantante chitarrista Tony Särkkä) si specializzarono in estenuanti e contorte improvvisazioni trance-metal come i 51 minuti di Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me (1993), che propendeva per la cacofonia astratta, e i 60 di In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrar (1994), che propendeva per droni ambient gotici.
I quattro lunghi pezzi di Casus Luciferi (2004), registrati dal solo Håkansson, proseguivano lungo un vena astratta ma introducevano un po' d'ordine.
Evil Genius (2007) raccoglie vecchie demo.
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