De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet

There is that common phenomenon of few certain bands from your favourite style of music constantly and constantly escaping your grasp through one unconvenient coincidence after another. For my long history as a Thrash Metal maniac a good example is Destruction, which i did not get a chance to hear - though always wanted - for over ten years after i had first heard Sodom or Kreator. In the late 90s and through the most of which we have seen of this millenium yet, when my interest began to shift towards Black Metal, Abruptum became one of the prime examples of "this kind of bands" to me, until finally, not too long ago, by pure chance i found this EP in a second hand store and decided to just go for it. Could I by any chance have expected this inferno I would be hearing?

As little as three songs are to be found on this release, starting with the title track, which has seen the light of day long before the EP it gave its title to, on the "Nordic Metal" compilation released in the honour of the deceased scene icon "Euronymous", who on his label had already released the first two works of these Swedish nutheads, at a time when the now sole member of Abruptum, "Evil", (also known by his involvement with the famous Swedish Band "Marduk", whose singer "coincididentally" is in charge of the label responsible for this release) was still accompanied by the enigmatic "IT", who later quit the band simultanously to his unresolved departure from "the scene". The major part of what he hear could be vaguely classified as Doom Metal, showing the usual elements from within that genre such as slow percussion, low, mesmerizingly sluggish guitars and chanting growls, whose hypnotic and ritualistic effect is increased even more by the use of the Latin language. In addition to that, the growls are accompanied by screams of anguish, that send a shiver down the spine of the listener and which could most likely be considered the main reason - along with the satanic outlet and the use of "corpsepaint" in their older band pictures - for this band being officially classified as "Black Metal". To round up the picture, this song has been laced with chaotic noise, keyboards that spread a kind of "classic horror movie atmosphere" and other random elements in between its "outbreaks" of the main parts. All in all, this impressive piece of dark music gets 100% of my rating.

As for the two songs that follow, my excitement is somewhat "boiling on lower heat", if you get what I mean, which is not to imply that these songs are necessarily bad though. To make it easy for myself I can generally describe these tracks as "militaristic noise", noisier then, say, NON or Nurse With Wound, but way more martial in its approach than pure noise acts such as Merzbow or Masonna. The reason why I say that this description "makes it easy for myself" is simple that if the bands I compared it to are completely unfamiliar for you and by what little description I gave do not spark any interest of yours you also will not like the last two tracks from this Abruptum EP. If however you know these bands and are - like me - fond of their style you might not also get a picture of what this music sounds like but you might find a liking in it yourself.

In general, for my first encounter with this band I stand more than impressed and swiftly was eager to hear more of them!!

Nov 28th, 2004, droneriot