Abigorum began as the solo project of Russian musician Aleksey Korolyov, who is also the owner of Satanath Records. Operating on his own, and drawing upon traditions of doom, black metal, and dark ambient music, he recorded a sequence of releases that included a collaboration with Cryostasium (2016’s Unholy Ghost Liturgy) and a split with Striborg (2018’s Spectral Shadows). Since then he has expanded the line-up of Abigorum with the addition of two German musicians — guitarist/vocalist Tino Thiele (from Wulfgar and Metamorph) and bassist Sandra Batsch — and together they have completed a debut album named Exaltatus Mechanism.
The album, whose lyrics are in German, “tells the story of the fascination of the black and grey side of evil, the ridicule of vices and hatred for people who are accustomed to a normal life and do not understand that everything around them is just an illusion, and that they are slaves”. The album will be jointly released on June 14th by Satanath Records and the U.S. label Death Portal Studio, and what we have for you today is the second advance track from the album released so far — “Über Dich” (over you or above you).
As you might already know, or perhaps already have guessed from the titles of Abigorum’s previous releases, there is often a deeply haunting quality to the band’s creations, and that is certainly true of “Über Dich“. It proceeds at a slow and stately pace, and weaves an increasingly unsettling but irresistible spell despite the oppressiveness of its miserable mood.
Simplicity is the hallmark of the ingredients — the crack and boom of a plodding drum rhythm; the cycling of long moaning chords; the spectral wailing of the lead guitar; a whispering wind of ambient sound; and the occasional distorted, echoing sounds of monstrous roars, lacerating shrieks, and deep spoken words. Simple though the ingredients may be, they combine to create a sepulchral anthem of preternatural dread and mortal hopelessness. And as the spare, calamitous melody continues its cycle, it becomes increasingly hypnotic even as it sends shivers down the spine. The music seems like the beckoning of skeletal hands, inviting us toward our eternal home of oblivion.
Exaltatus Mechanism features artwork by a favorite of our site, Luciana Nedelea. The album as a whole is recommended for fans of Blut Aus Nord, Spektr, Abigor, Satyricon, and Nortt. It will be releaed by Satanath and Death Portal in a jewelcase CD edition of 500 copies with an 8-page booklet. You’ll find pre-order info below, along with a stream of the previously released track “Maskenball” — and of course the new song we’re presenting today.
PRE-ORDER;
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat247-abigorum-exaltatus-mechanism-2019
https://deathportalstudio.bandcamp.com/
ABIGORUM:
https://abigorum.bandcamp.com/
http://facebook.com/abigorum
TRACK LIST:
01. Grau Und Schwarz
02. Maskenball
03. Jetzt
04. Für Die Ewigkeit
05. Königreich Dunkelheit
06. Der Ängstliche Mensch
07. Krieg
08. Über Dich
09. Das Kloster
Length – 45:31