Of the past year, we can certainly count Abhorration’s debut record, ‘Demonolatry’, as one of the best. In terms of originality, it may not be startling, but the execution of Morbid Angel-inspired Death Metal leaves nothing to complain about. The closing passage from my review of the album actually speaks volumes: “This is Possessed on vitriol or Morbid Angel carrying rabies. No finesse, just unadulterated violent rampage”. So it should come as no surprise that I eagerly presented singer/guitarist Magnus with some questions…
Hi, thanks for sharing some time with me and go through this Q&A together. Let’s first go to the beginning of the band. In 2021 you released a 4-track demo tape and your debut album ‘Demonolatry’ appeared three years later. How do you look back at those first demo years and what happened in those three years in between?
The first few years were a lot of fun, as it often is when you start a new band. A lot of drinking, loads of full-weekend rehearsals and the drive that you get when playing a new genre, and none of your ideas are yet spent. We started writing for the album pretty much as soon as the mix for the EP was finished and Arild joined ranks even before the first track was done. We spent about two years making ‘Demonolatry’ and finished the last track in May 2023. The recording process started in October of that year and we spent the time in between rehearsing and getting all the details correct.
As a mere bystander and self-proclaimed musical analyst I can write down a few lines on new releases, yet I am always curious how the involved musicians experience their music themselves. If you’d compare your demo tape with ‘Demonolatry’, what would you say is the most significant difference or progression?
‘After Winter Comes War’ is more straight forward in my ears. More thrashy, with less detail but into the actual song-writing. It’s also slightly less dynamic. Other than that I think they are quite similar in style. It’s not hard to hear that this is the same band, though Arild’s contributions to ‘Demonolatry’ offer a style of riffing other than what I’m able to write, making the album more varied than the EP.
I think one of the most significant differences is the addition of lead guitarist Arild Torp to your line-up. He was already involved on the demo as a guest, but now he’s an integral part of the band. How did that affect the process of song writing?
Arild’s first contribution was the most chaotic riff in the opening track, after the first chorus. He added some parts here and there in four of the six songs and I think this really adds to it. Going forward, both him and Andreas are contributing more, so we will hopefully be able to produce a more varied album next time, as it won’t be mainly my riffs and structures. Solos are also an integral part in this style of death metal, so as you probably noticed, we maxed it!
Labels and promotors are always keen to market “their” bands with flashy texts and lots of comparisons (“for fans of…”). Reviewers basically do the same. From my personal experience, lots of bands do get (mildly) annoyed or frustrated by this phenomenon. In my review I also threw in my few cents and closed it off with “This is Possessed on vitriol or Morbid Angel carrying rabies”. Is there anything that you musically feel close to or see as your main influence on a musical level?
It’s a bit of a double edged sword. On one side it’s a good thing, as it helps people deciding which band to check out in the overflowing world of death metal, while on the other side it sort of undermines the music itself by diminishing it to merely “sounding like” something else. Of course we’re a good example here, as we wear our influences on our sleeve. Our main inspirations are early Morbid Angel, Sadistic Intent, maybe some early Vader and Immolation as well as similar thrashy death metal from the late 80’s/early 90’s. We’re not trying to create anything new or groundbreaking, we just want to play death metal the way we prefer it.
What I personally really appreciate is that you, unlike a whole generation of newer Death Metal bands, do not tune down your guitars that much. Sounding swampy is fashionable these days. Instead, you feel much closer to “real” Death Metal like Necrovore, Sadistic Intent or Angelcorpse. Is this something that you intentionally stay away from or is it just a natural way the music flows out of your collective fingers?
Indeed! I agree with you. It was 100% a conscious decision. Initially, when it was just Øyvind and I, we tried tuning in C simply because that was the tuning on Sadistic Intent’s ‘Resurrection’. However, it didn’t sound right. It sounded like a quickfix to make everything sound heavy, so we changed it after 2-3 rehearsals. The way it “drowns” the music also takes away some of the pressure for good riffs, which I don’t like, as well as how said downing takes away some of the finesse in technical riffs. The same goes for having shitloads of reverb and chorus on production and vocals. It allows you to hide behind the effects.
All of my ranting obviously comes with exceptions, but it is often done unnecessarily. The “effects” should complement the music, not the other way around. Autopsy needs low tuning in the same way as ‘Under a Funeral Moon’ needs echo.
All four of you have quite a diverse musical background, ranging from Obliteration, Avmakt, Deathhammer, and Nekromantheon to the more underrated Black Magic, Condor and the excellent Mabuse. How do you think all of that accumulated experience translates to the music of Abhorration?
It’s hard to say. So far I’ve done most of the song writing (but not all) in Abhorration, so it will be an easier question to answer after our next album. However, I think our experience in working as a band has helped a lot when it comes to cohesion and knowing where to draw the line both musically and production-wise. We are very aligned with what we want with this band, which is new to me.
It is a bit easy to always connect Norway to its Black Metal tradition and history, most of you are not much related to any of that – Avmakt being basically the only exception. I’m curious to know if and how the Norwegian Black Metal movement has influenced the way you experience and create music. Can you take us with you on this slightly philosophical path?
I find it weird that people still do. There have been almost no good black metal from Norway in the past 25 years. Out of the classic bands I can count about five that are worth listening to, and only a small handful since. The ones I am referring are of course Darkthrone, Mayhem, Immortal and Burzum. That makes four I guess, if you don’t count Aura Noir. After that, Orcustus is probably the only “newer” black metal band I listen to. These few bands have however had an immense impact on all of us in Abhorration. On how we listen to- and create music, as well as our general attitude towards music, production, song writing and visual aesthetics.
I’m not a spiritual or philosophical person, but what some of the these bands do do, is that they create an atmosphere dissimilar to any other genre. They somehow capture the musical feeling of Norwegian mountains and forests.
Of course, there are always exceptions, and there are definitely other bands with some good material, but the ones mentioned are the ones I actually listen to regularly, and the ones I regard a-grade Norwegian black metal.
Speaking of Black Metal… I don’t think Abhorration is 100% Death Metal. I personally hear quite a bit of Sabbat (‘Fetishism’) in the mix. As well as some hard-hitting Thrashy stuff like classic Aura Noir and early Sadus. Does that make sense to you?
Absolutely! It’s funny you mention ‘Fetishism’, thats my favourite Sabbat record. You’ll find some clear nods to Sabbat in some of our songs, same with Sadus. Aura Noir haven’t been a direct inspiration behind this band, but it’s probably just latent in our minds, as they have had a huge impact on all of us. Aura Noir was pretty much the band that got me into underground extreme metal to start with. Sadus’ ‘Illusions’ is also one of my all-time favourite albums, regardless of genre, so that makes sense. In general, I’ve always had an inclination towards the thrasher bands within pretty much all metal genres, so you’ll always hear thrash in the music I make.
If I remember well you were also planning a vinyl version of your ‘After Winter Comes War’-demo, but so far it didn’t surface yet. Did that idea end up in the trash? For now it has only been available on CD and cassette tape…
It is coming this year. It’ll be a compilation consisting of the EP + the demo we sold at KillTown 2023, containing demo versions of the three first tracks on ‘Demonolatry’.
Obviously, one of the most standard questions to start wrapping up an interview is asking what else is cooking… So, although the album is relatively fresh, I am still curious to know what you are planning for the rest of the year. Anything new?
For 2025, only shows. We’ll be writing material for the next album in between, and hopefully be able to record in 2026. At the moment we’ve got one song finished and three others in the works, so once we manage to hunker down we’ll get stuff done quickly I hope.
And what about these other bands of you all? The majority of these bands have been quite silent over the past few years. Wouldn’t it be about time for new releases of Hecatomb, Obliteration or Nekromanteon? And I just double-checked, Mabuse hasn’t even done anything since 2013’s ‘Nekromagic’ 7” EP…
I can’t really speak for the other guys, but as far as I know you won’t see any releases from any of the bands you mentioned any time soon. Unfortunately…
Okay, let’s wrap it up here. Thank you very much for your time and of course the awesome album, hopefully we will see you again soon. The last words of this interview are for you…
Thank you! Die for old metal!!
