Abigor (band)

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Abigor
Abigor Logo.jpg
General information
Genre (s) Black Metal (until 2003), Industrial Black Metal (from 2006)
founding 1993, 2006
resolution 2003
Website http://www.abigor.at/
Current occupation
Arthur "AR" Rosar
Peter "PK" Kubik (since 1993)
Drums , guitar
 Thomas "TT" Tannenberger (since 1993)
former members
singing
 Michael "Silenius" Gregor (1994–1999)
Vocals, keyboard
Tharen, Rune (1993-1994)

Abigor is an Austrian black metal band.

Band history

The band was founded in 1993 by Peter Kubik and Thomas Tannenberger. After the release of the first demos , the original singer Tharen left the band and was replaced by Michael "Silenius" Gregor from the band Summoning . Abigor's early works contain allusions to JRR Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings , the name of the first demo by the band Ash Nazg ... ("A Ring ..."). Furthermore, the cover of the publication Orkblut - The Retaliation was painted by the Lord of the Rings artist Ian Miller , and the name of the album suggests that it was inspired by Tolkien. Despite these influences, the band played pure, satanic- inspired black metal on these releases . In 1994 Abigor's first album was released on Napalm Records, Havoc / Invoke the Dark Age . The success of the band largely financed the label and increased its financial strength increasingly.

On the album Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom) Elisabeth Toriser contributed parts of the vocals. She also works with the bands Antichrisis, Dargaard and Dominion III . The text for The Dark Kiss comes from Hendrik "JFN" Möbus from the NSBM band Absurd .

On the one hand, the band is considered "the figurehead of the Austrian Black Metal scene", on the other hand, the band's exit from the Austrian Black Metal Syndicate (ABMS) around bands like Vuzem and Pervertum was viewed by some fans as a "betrayal"; Hagen, singer of the Werwolf group, sharply attacked the Abigor and Summoning groups in the Ablaze , called Silenius a “fairy tale” and gave him the tip not to “get in his way”.

While recording Channeling the Quintessence of Satan , Gregor decided to leave Abigor. During this period Thurisaz joined the band Heidenreich and finished the album with her. The cover of Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is by the German artist Albrecht Dürer ( Knight, Death and the Devil from 1514).

The founding member Thomas Tannenberger left the band in May 2000. Abigor then released the album Satanized and after the end of the contract with Napalm Records the EP Shockwave 666 on Dark Horizon Records. In June 2003 the band broke up. Kubik gave the reasons for being the last founding member in 2003, at the time problems with the cast because of the distance, the Napalm Records label because of the studio and the associated costs, and the state of the scene. From 2003 to 2006, neither Tannenberger nor Kubik was “really involved in the (black) metal scene, nor did we take care of it”. However, Kubik worked “on ideas for ST.LUCIFER and as a guitarist for HELLBOUND”. When he found out that Asmodeus was to record in Tannenberger's studio, Kubik and Tannenberger got in touch again and after a few months put previous “differences aside and found a basis for future cooperation”. At first, however, no reunification was planned. This break was “sorely needed” “to regenerate”, and its dissolution was “the best for ABIGOR”, he regrets nothing about this decision. As in their first phase, the band never performed live, which they "still consider to be a waste of time"; the time spent rehearsing old pieces and preparing could be better used for writing new pieces and developing new ideas. In addition, the members are employed and therefore not dependent on sales, which makes them independent. Nobody is waiting for the band to ever perform live.

In 2006 the band was re-established and since 2007 the album Fractal Possession has been under contract with End All Life Productions . Fractal Possession , which was created in Tannenberger's studio, is more complex and avant-garde than the previous albums and was created without rehearsals. Instead, the members exchanged recordings and revised them, for example some more complex parts were looped . Kubik commented on the change of style:

“ Fractal Possession is not“ the break in style ”as many define it; it's different, no question about it, but still ABIGOR stylistically. Personally, I would describe it as cold, nihilistic, and complex. It is not an easy-listening album, we expect the listener to be occupied with it, Fractal Possession lives from details, it takes time and calm to find the way into the album, to be drawn into its spell. "

- Peter "PK" cubic :

style

On their debut album, the band played "grim, cold Black Metal", which is comparable to the music of the Scandinavian bands, but more melodic and faster. Turov from Vönger Musikmagazin sees in the music style “pretty much all stylistic Black Metal elements that had already appeared before Euronymous died. This means the brutality of old Mayhem things […], the soulfulness of the Burzum publications […] and the technical adeptness of Emperor […] ”. On the EP Orkblut - The Retaliation and the second album Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom) there is a development from the raw sound of the debut to a faster and more melodic style with a mostly fast guitar playing, which consists of a high-pitched lead and a slightly lower one tuned rhythm guitar . Frank Stöver from Voices from the Darkside described the second album as almost comparable to Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse due to its bombastic, almost orchestral sounding passages . The good production goes well with the music and shows that Black Metal does not necessarily need a garage sound to convey the right atmosphere.

Despite developing with each release, the band retained a recognizable style of their own, described by Sascha Falquet in Voices from the Darkside as "angry, fairly technical Black Metal with majestic synthesizer parts"; accordingly, "the riffs and the direction of the mood" have remained similar. "From extreme beating ('Apocalypse') to sometimes more experimental keyboard Black Metal ('Supreme Immortal Art') everything was represented in the releases." The band moves in a "gray area between purism and innovation in Black Metal" . While "quite a few fans [...] found the constant 'style breaks' confusing", "more open-minded listeners see it as a challenge [...] to have to find their way into ABIGOR again and again". Tannenberger puts “a lot of emphasis on emphasizing that we are not trying to process any influences or to fuse styles” and points out that albums like Mayhems De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas , Burzums Det som engang var and Darkthrones A Blaze in the Northern Sky were "very innovative and extreme albums" and "and copying the same [...] NOT in the sense of this".

ideology

According to Tannenberger, Satanism is "unreservedly [...] the basis of everything that defines ABIGOR - music, texts, layout are an homage to him. It is not the lyrics that are an endless litany of homage, but the product, the album as a whole, represents them ”. Kubik defines himself as a Satanist whose outlook is based on the worship of Satan, rituals and a combination of philosophies of different kinds of pagan and occult currents. For Tannenberger, Satan understands all-embracing, as God as well as an inconceivable greatness, whose manifestations in different cultures and religions he recognizes all; Abigor's main focus is "of course on the biblical / Christian manifestation of Satan".

Because of Möbus' involvement in the album Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom) and his own statements, Abigor was “located on the far right, whereas the band half-heartedly tried to differentiate”. Thomas Tannenberger said in an interview that he was “not a Nazi, but also by no means a friend of foreigners”. With regard to Möbus, Kubik explained that "Absurd for him was" a strange band that never appealed to me very much, but JFN was a close friend of mine with whom I shared parts of the philosophy of life that strive for a new world order "". For Absurd he took over the mastering of the EP Asgardsrei ; The Grabesmond project, founded by Summoning members, took part in the 1999 compilation Tribute to Absurd by Silencelike Death, when they quit and it was continued by Kubik's wife Lucia-Mariam Fåroutan-Kubik. Tannenberger also remastered the absurd demos for the 2009/2010 release Life Beyond the Grave: 1992-1994 and Godless Norths Fimbulvetr , both of which were released by Darker Than Black Records . In an interview conducted in 2007, Kubik said that he “couldn't do anything with political tendencies”, but “with the best will in the world, he couldn't express himself politically correct , because Black Metal is simply not politically correct”, and added: “Every Black Metal- Interview in the first few years had clearly inhuman and elitist , mostly fascist (independent of left or right) and war-glorifying tendencies ”. His definition of black metal deviates from that of the NSBM, but he does not rank among the critics of the NSBM, because they are also against other forms of extremism and extremism must necessarily be the basis of a black metal band.

With regard to the murder of Count Grishnackh ( Varg Vikernes ) of Euronymous ( Øystein Aarseth ) and the resulting conflict between Grishnackh and Euronymous supporters, the band took neither side: Tannenberger told the Ablaze : “I am the most enthusiastic of an equal fight where the weaker is eliminated […]. Hail Greifi Grishnackh ”, and opposite Voices from the Darkside :“ BURZUM rules ”; on the other hand, on the back of the album Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age is a picture of Euronymous next to the saying “God's throne is ours. Turn away from Jesus Christ - the loser. Heil Satan ”. Tannenberger stated in the Rites of Eleusis that he made the statement "BURZUM rules" to provoke Burzum opponents and anti-fascists; he hates the conflict between Euronymous and Grishnackh fans, he respects both and adores both the Burzum and Mayhem albums . He also emphasized to metal.de that “Black Metal is much more than a musical genre, but an expression of the spiritual path of the respective protagonist” and “the clear guidelines in z. B. Euronymous interviews were important in the early 1990s. This clearly defined what Black Metal should stand for ”.

Discography

Studio albums

Demos and EPs

  • 1993: Ash Nazg ... (demo)
  • 1993: Lux devicta est (demo)
  • 1994: Promo Tape 2 (demo)
  • 1994: In Hate & Sin (demo)
  • 1994: Moonrise (demo)
  • 1995: Orkblut - The Retaliation ( EP )
  • 1997: Apocalypse (EP)
  • 1998: Structures of Immortality (7 "- The Spirit of Venus )
  • 2000: In Memory (EP)
  • 2003: Shockwave 666 (EP)

Compilations

  • 1998: Origo regium 1993–1994 (re-release of the demos)
  • 2011: Quintessence (new recording of Channeling the Quintessence of Satan and re-release of the demos)

Sampler contributions

  • 1995: Shadowlord on With Us or Against Us
  • 1997: A Breath From Worlds Beyond on Firestorm

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f V.ic V.icious: The phoenix in the napalm fire . In: A-Blaze No. 01, August / September 2007, p. 14f.
  2. ↑ a b Georg Rothenwänder: The hymn of the possessed . In: Legacy . No. 11 ( legacy.de [accessed on March 18, 2010]). The hymn of the possessed ( memento of the original from August 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.legacy.de
  3. ↑ The real horror . Interview with singer Hagen. In: Ablaze , No. 8 January / February 1996
  4. ^ Abigor Interview; Cold Void Choir. heathenharvest.com; Retrieved December 11, 2008
  5. ↑ ABIGOR - Pt. 2: The Re-Invention Of Metal . ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. avantgarde-metal.com; Retrieved December 11, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.avantgarde-metal.com
  6. ↑ toroddfuglesteg: ABIGOR Desolation / Invoke the Dark Age .
  7. ↑ Filip Dupont: Havoc / Invoke the dark age  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.archaic-magazine.com  
  8. ↑ Turov: Abigor # Desolation / Invoke the Dark Age .
  9. ↑ Steve Hoeltzel: Abigor - Night Hymns (From the Twilight Kingdom) .
  10. ↑ Frank Stöver: ABIGOR . Night anthems (From the twilight kingdom) . In: Voices from the Darkside , No. 8, 1996.
  11. ↑ Sascha Falquet: ABIGOR . Opus IV . In: Voices from the Darkside , No. 10, 1997, p. 15.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Alboin: Abigor - Interview. July 23, 2007, accessed January 15, 2010 .
  13. ↑ Interview with Peter Kubik
  14. ^ Christian Dornbusch , Klaus-Peter Killguss: Unheilige Alliances . Black Metal between Satanism, Paganism and Neo-Nazism, p. 50
  15. ^ Christian Dornbusch, Klaus-Peter Killguss: Unheilige Alliances. Black Metal Between Satanism, Paganism and Neo-Nazism, p. 298
  16. ↑ Grave Moon. Retrieved March 8, 2010 .
  17. ↑ NEWS SEPTEMBER 2009 .
  18. ↑ NEWS APRIL 2010 .
  19. ↑ NEWS FEBRUARY 2009 .
  20. ^ Christian Dornbusch, Klaus-Peter Killguss: Unheilige Alliances. Black Metal between Satanism, Paganism and Neo-Nazism, p. 50
  21. ↑ Frank Stöver: Abigor . True Austrian Black Metal . In: Voices from the Darkside , No. 5, p. 15.
  22. ↑ Abigor . In: Rites of Eleusis , No. 2, 1995, p. 26.