1994-1995 - the golden years when black metal had reached the peak of its splendor and its essence - in these years came out the best masterpieces of the historic Scandinavian bands like DARKTHRONE, MAYHEM, MARDUK and so on. Among these realities there were also the Swedish Abruptum who decided to conceive of black metal in a completely different form, even more obscure and malignant than the genre that was emerging. Two well-known members of the Scandinavian scene (It, founder of "True Satanist Horde" and Evil, better known as Morgan - founding member of mighty Marduk) joined forces to give birth to two masterpieces of pure chaotic darkness - "Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me" (1993, recorded in 1992) and "In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo, in Aeternum in Triumpho Tenebrarum" (1994, recorded in 1993). Euronymous from Mayhem immediately understood the uniqueness and authenticity of Abruptum and decided to submit the Swedish duo to his historic label "Deathlike Silence Productions" and release the the two full-lengths. In the two albums the Abruptum seem to deconstruct and break down black metal to its primordial essence - there are no rules and musical structures, there is no canon, no songs, no riffs, no strophes, we could and should doubt if this can even be called music. De facto, the essence of Abruptum is not the musical form, but the atmosphere and the aura that they manage to evoke and transmit - a claustrophobic journey into a an endless nightmare - uncomfortable, unpredictable, morbid and cold. The crawling sounds of drums, guitar and keyboards seem a slow cacophonic lament that tortures the soul of those who try to understand it. There is no singing here - rather agonizing and schizophrenic screams that bounce off into the darkness. The two albums of the Abruptum do not allow much interpretation and rhetoric - the only sensations that transmit the nearly two hours of sound wall are: malaise, darkness and chaos. You can hate it, you can love it - but you can not remain indifferent. It is no coincidence that Euronymous himself defined the "music" of the Abruptum "The audial essence of pure black evil". These two albums are an admirable example of what black metal should be - freedom to be and do what you want. Today very few can do it ...
