The brainchild of Rex Ebvleb, Abyssum started out as a black metal project in the mid-nineties, resulting in a few demos and finally its sum in Thy Call, 1998. After a little time, the band simply was no more, with Ebvleb carrying on the torch on his own and in a reserved way. Disgusted by the scene that formed in the name of black metal, Ebvleb took Abyssum away, neglecting even to be openly recognized by the tag. Tags being what they are and changing in meaning as history advances for all but the most stout scholars of any given discipline, are put aside by the independent thinkers and outstanding individuals that an inverted society can never recognize. This reborn Abyssum that distances itself from what the crowds of what is now called “black metal” maintains the truly black essence of the genre that goes beyond speech and pretending, and which, as Sammath’s Kruitwagen, Antaeus’ MkM and other underground artists have pointed out in the past, is a way of life and a mindset — not just a music style.

There are three clearly distinguishable components in the music apart from the foggy and sparse vocals and enunciations. These are the drums, keyboards and guitars, each of which have a very crucial role to play. This is minimalism at all levels, including instrumentation. Only the necessary, the indispensable is used. No gimmick, no posturing. The drums are locked in, not as a machine, but like a vital organ in a living creature, underscoring, emphasizing yet adding motions of its own. None of the instruments is a slave or subordinate, precisely to the others, rather, they represent partial reflections of an otherwise indivisible will. Evident proof is further found in the expert interplay between keyboards and guitars which seem to come to the fore, allowing the other to take the lead at each given moment, or focusing on one idea to drive a penetrating dagger through darkness.

Hermetic in essence and esoteric in its unveiling, Abyssum shares with the greateset like Hvis Lyset Tar Oss to the recent Stormkult, an obscurantist embedding of thought and intention that reveals nuances in the music, a music that is that is only deceptively and superficially simple, to the aware or those who are ready to receive it, which in itself implies not a precise knowledge but a state of mind to which one may come about through different paths. This is a trait that the masterpiece Stormcrowfleet also shared, which still flies over and past most metalheads without them even noticing. In other words, this is not music for everybody or anybody. Not because its “understanding”requires a particular taste (that is a different issue altogether) but because an aural and holistic absorption of the music that supercedes technique and the palpable must be achieved that is never objectively –scientifically verifiable and may only be taken in as a personal experience and inner unutterable comprehension.

AKHERRA .. drums and percussion, graphyx
P.E.R.O.D. EBVLEB .. all music and arregments, ideologies and instruments.
mix and recording by EbvleB

“Y para esos que desprecio por millones no creare jamás un segundo de música…”

Tags: Abyssum, Akherra, Cum Foeda Sanie Ex Ore, Obscurantism, Rex Ebvleb