ABRUPTUM — In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo, in Aeternum in Triumpho Tenebrarum (review)

ABRUPTUM — In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo, in Aeternum in Triumpho Tenebrarum album cover Album · 1994 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
renkls
Abruptum had already made a name for themselves in the early 1990s with their debut, as a melding of dark ambience, noise and black metal. 'Obscuritatem advoco amplectère me' was a 50 minute suite of utter chaos split into two halves, whereas their second album 'In umbra malitiae ambulabo, in aeternum in triumpho tenebraum' follows the same formula, except it's a single undivided 60 minute track. Flowing as an improvised piece of sound chaos, the album is challenging, anti-conventional and pretty structureless. For what it is though, it's one of the best instances of improvisational black metal around.

Pulling it apart, there seems to be a sense of cohesion to it, despite it sounding mostly improvised; well timed screams over cathartic drum beats, violin screeches that accentuate the feeling of dread. If this already sounds too 'out there' or unconventional for you, it probably is. I think this sound exercise struck me most prominently as a low-fi soundtrack, but very difficult listening because of how much it strays from convention, and has long periods of time where nothing remotely constituting musical competence happens. I enjoy it, time to time, but it's definitely a difficult listen, no matter how you put it.
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renkls wrote:
more than 2 years ago
There's rumours the vocalist It was tortured during the making of this album, but I think that's probably hearsay. It's pretty unhinged stuff, but deadening given the length and design.
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I´ve been meaning to check Abruptum out since the day I read an interview with Dan Swanö where he said, that he had worked with a lot of different death and black metal acts with a forced "evil" image. The only truly "evil" acts he had ever worked with was Abruptum. I don´t know if he meant the band or the music. My guess is the latter.

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