Good things tend to take time. I wouldn’t necessarily compare Abominator to an exquisite wine or anything of that nature, but apparently it’s quite common for the finer wines to be left to age for ten years. That’s exactly how long we’ve had to wait for ‘The Fire Brethren’, Abominator’s sixth full-length album. For me, the album came quite unexpectedly, but it turned out to be predictably good. With drummer/singer Chris Vulcano, I discussed the time between albums, the band’s early years, and, of course, the new album.
The roots of Abominator go deep, but especially in the last two decades, the band laid dormant for the majority of the time. With only two albums in twenty years, even a statement of “quality over quantity” feels a bit out of place. In the case of Abominator, what kept you from coming back sooner?
Well, It has been a saga to say the very least. Circumstances were always hard on us, initially after the fourth album ‘The Eternal Conflagration’ we needed time out to regroup and recalibrate our ideas, to recall why we were doing Abominator in the first place. In the meantime we wanted to go our separate directions for a while, Andrew with Cemetery Urn and myself with Ignivomous, both bands exploring the potential of death metal. After a number of years doing that, Myself and Andrew found sparse time here and there to put together a new Abominator album which you all know as ‘Evil Proclaimed’. We slowly began work on ‘The fire Brethren’ afterwards and we were all set to return once more, then Covid hit. This skewed all of our plans, the substrate of time was damaged and from then on, everything took ever so much longer to achieve. But we got there in the end.
Although I did not exactly see this one coming, I was astounded by ‘The Fire Brethren’. It might have taken ten years, but for sure the fire is still very much in you guys. Is that what the title of this new album refers to?
It is one reason, our fiery spirit never seems to die, and there is still much reason for it to be there in today’s insane world. The great thing about it is the new album is perfect to us in almost every way, we could probably die happy after this one. If it is our last album, then we are going down in a glorious sea of flames rather than a tiny puddle of embers. I am astounded that I am so satisfied with the album despite the long lead up time!
And, taking the previous question a step further, usually a band needs some constant sort of “bonding”, to keep the chemistry between the musicians alive. How do you keep this Abominator flame burning with so little activity? Do you still rehearse and meet up a lot, regardless of shows and recording schedules?
We used to meet up all the time even though there are distances between us, basically we now live on the opposite sides of town. We used to live closer so it was way more convenient back then. But when the time arrived, we would always show up, to a gig, a studio, rehearsal etc. The need to create what we do always seemed to negate any obstacle before us. I do speak to Andrew regularly and keep up appearances as you would expect. There will always be that bond, simply because of the sheer volume of what we created with Abominator.
One of the things I found particularly amazing after having listened to ‘The Fire Brethren’ and revisiting your back catalogue, is that you still managed to progress as a band. Although “progression” sounds a bit off within the context of this genre, you guys surely tightened and refined your craft. How do you personally view the development between the individual records, especially towards your latest offering?
It was a natural progression for sure, it almost feels as though the band came full circle from our first album ‘Damnations Prophecy’ as I do feel this new album is a refinement of that album but more organised and perfected to the nth degree, and we have finally achieved it! There are micro elements from all our previous albums present in our latest, that adds up to a superior enveloping of our sound overall.
‘The Fire Brethren’ to me sounded a bit less heavy than its predecessor, ‘Evil Proclaimed’ from 2015. Therefore this new album had a slightly sharper edge to it, giving the album a stronger Black Metal connotation. Was that something you set out to do deliberately or did it just turn out this way? If you agree with my observation at all, that is…
I don’t know, maybe it could have something to do with the final mix or the difference between sound engineers. On ‘Evil Proclaimed’ you had Sam Johnson, who helped me out again with the drum recording for the new one, unfortunately his studio flooded numerous times and we were unable to continue with him. We went with Adam Calaitzis on the latest one and his productions always turn out more natural sounding, ‘The Fire Brethren’ certainly has that sound quality we needed. It naturally brought out the black metal feel in our music which has always been there, and there has been much conjecture on what style we play exactly but that’s another matter altogether.
In my review about ‘The Fire Brethren’, I described it as “Morbid Angel on 45RPM with Terrorizer’s ‘World Downfall’ mixed in”, “controlled chaos” and “Australian barbarism at its best”. What I meant to say is that, maybe now more than ever, Abominator is about riffs. Something that goes beyond mere noise and only seems to unfold itself for the person willing to invest in actually listening to the record. Quite contrary to today’s standard of disposable entertainment and short-attention spans. How do you look at all this yourself?
Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from, although not really! It’s strange how we are compared to Morbid Angel a lot, maybe it could be in the context of excellence of musicianship, in which case I’ll take it as a compliment. And yes I do believe I am developing riffs that are more mature I guess you could say. I appreciate the sentiment about our album unfurling itself before the listener, it’s kind of a form of magic to be able to do that in such a shallow age as this one. As obscure as we may be, we know we are doing something right in the face of those odds!!
A bit on a practical and artistic level, as a musician involved with some other bands as well, like Cemetery Urn and Starfallen, how do you keep things separated? And how does the song writing work? Are there certain ideas or songs that you might come up with during sessions that you think fit best with one band or another…?
My mind is a practical yet primordial place, Not everyone lives on a daily basis in the confines of such a mind. Those that know about me understand that I need multiple outlets to explore all of my ideas. For example in Starfallen you will notice the difference in feeling to Abominator, it is also a different set of influences which are slower more melancholic and dreamy. It’s easy to compartmentalise based on what feeling I want it to have. Also, you have to meticulously sort out black metal ideas from death metal ideas to maintain the purity of direction, and I may have to resurrect IGNIVOMOUS in the future to explore it further. I’ve got ideas for years…
Besides being currently active in Cemetery Urn and Abominator, you have also been playing with Denouncement Pyre, Ignivomous, Deströyer 666, Destruktor as well as a bunch of others. How do you generally look back at these involvements? Care to share some memories or anecdotes?
It’s all good, although I’ve had my fair share of falling out with people, but I’ll always remember the times I’ve had working with them, going to Europe twice with Ignivomous as well as the infamous US trip to San Antonio where our guitarist got arrested for marijuana possession and thus couldn’t play the show with us, making a trip to Bendigo a few times to jam with Destruktor when I was 25, all the interstate shows within Australia over the years, it’s been wild, certainly as much as I can handle!
Something that can’t be left unmentioned is the great artwork of ‘The Fire Brethren’. Evil regressive metal, call it old school if you will, always goes well with Moyen. This piece comes in colour, which is not entirely unique for Moyen, but still not quite usual. This way, also with less perversion and more of an occult vibe, it breathes a bit of those classic Seagrave or Necrolord album covers. Was this your concept? Or did Chris Moyen just come up with something?
Chris Moyen is a genius, he takes your ideas and owns them to perfection, the concept was mine and what he does is he goes off and does his thing, then comes back at you with something you may not have expected, but it’s a perfect depiction of the concept anyway. Chris Moyen also knows how much I liked Necrolord’s artwork style, so he’s done it here and its marvellous.
In my previous question I touched upon a slight and perhaps even subtle change in the theme of artwork. What about your lyrics? Obviously there is still a fair bit of Satanic and perverse kind of stuff going on, and maybe it is just a feeling I get from the music, but could this sort of change also have occurred on the lyrical side of things?
My lyrical themes haven’t changed significantly on this album, even though there are some thoughtful questions posited here and there, it has always been about impressions of the world from a certain point of view. Over the many years I have refined not only music but my personal scope, there are things I know about the world relatively few others do and some of that is channelled into my lyrics. Furthermore, the lyrics aren’t just senseless praisure of evil, as I understand the balance between good and evil in a deep way, so that may or may not be present in the lyrics at all times. I portray the perversion I see in others, as I see it in myself, although not in such a pervasive way.
Your last two albums, including ‘The Fire Brethren’, have been released by Hells Headbangers Records, in every way the most logical home for Abominator. Your output prior was handled by a few other labels of which a few are long defunct or at least very little active. Yet, some of the records released with those labels are getting increasingly harder to find, especially your 1999 debut album ‘Damnation’s Prophecy’. Are there any plans of reissuing those, perhaps with Hells Headbangers Records?
We are working on something like that, a re-issue of our first two albums would be the priority, if any. These are the albums that everybody wants the most so be sure that something will happen in the near future. We may not be working on new material right now but this re-issue venture will take up most of Abominator’s time in the months to come. It will most likely be hells headbangers, unless we get a much more substantial offer.
As a Dutch guy I remember being surprised that you signed with Displeased Records from The Netherlands in the mid 00’s, with ‘The Eternal Conflagration’ as the only result of that cooperation. That label to me did not feel like the most logical choice, especially after having left Osmose Productions. Do you remember what made you choose for Displeased Records back then? And how do you look back at changing from Osmose to Displeased and your cooperation with the Dutch label?
To be serious, signing with Displeased records is something we hoped we wouldn’t have to do. Osmose were panicking that our third album ‘Nuctemeron Descent’ wasn’t selling very well and they dumped us two albums into a three album contract. Our music has always been too extreme for many wimpy fans out there and it just takes so long for our material to properly settle into the market for many fans to be comfortable with it. When it came time to find a new label displeased were one of the only labels who were interested, so we swiftly signed a contract. The main difference was in funding as Osmose were prepared to throw more money at it to get it right, with ‘The Eternal Conflagration’ we had to expend a lot of our own money as well as deal with uninterested sound engineers who didn’t care. In hindsight it was a difficult time for the band.
Just one more question for the amateur metal historian in me: I always wondered how that split CD with Mornaland from 1997 came about. To me it always felt like an odd choice. Of course I know that Abominator was just starting back then and you might have grabbed just basically every opportunity. Still, how did you end up releasing that odd little piece of Abominator history?
Well, in a way you’re right, we were just starting out and any opportunity was a good one. However, the opportunity we were presented with was better than the one delivered. Originally the split was supposed to be with December Wolves, a better choice at the time, they pulled out however, and they could only get Mornaland to do it. We wanted to pull out as well, but we had already sent the master over to him, so in reality he pressed it against our will. We will live with that mistake for the rest of time, but at least it was somewhat rectified with the re-issue of ‘Barbarian War Worship’ That crushes the split album, so now you have an excuse to throw it out, I suppose we’ll have to re-issue that one as well, seeing it’s also out of print.
As a non-Australian with a healthy fascination with your country’s Extreme Metal tradition, I always like to ask insiders how they look at it from their perspective. Abominator was already part of the Australian scene a good couple of moons ago, how did the musical environment change compared to those bygone years? Do you still feel connected with the other musicians/bands from back in the day? And what about younger generations?
The Aussie metal scene has thrived up until recently, lately there have been fewer bands forming that are worth a toss. It’s a sign of economic prosperity when good bands form in your country, although there’s always a few in the pipeline you may not know about yet. We have a fucked up woke government in our country who are hell bent on making our lives difficult, so it’s getting harder. I still have many old friends from all around the country, I know many members of the bands, just the other month I met up with three members of the legendary Necrotomy at the Possessed show! There are some very young and keen fans as well, I always welcome them when they introduce themselves, many of them know who I am and its cool, I’m not gonna lie!
Slightly picking up on the previous question, without patting yourself on the back, do you feel Abominator has left a mark on the Australian metal scene? Bands like Sadistik Exekution and Deströyer 666 are the ones that get the most credits or at least are the most popular, how do you see your bit in all this with both Abominator and as an individual musician?
Some know me as the first drummer from Deströyer 666 and it seems they think that as long as they acknowledge Deströyer 666 then they’ve recognised me. Wrong! A lot has happened since those days, I think a lot of people snooze on the scene and it’s gotten to the point where the quality of our music and of other Aussie bands has surpassed the quality of D666 and what they’re doing nowadays, which I don’t really care for. Sadistik Exekution will always be legendary, but I feel like they could have done at least one or two more albums. It’s hard to stay inspired when the scene goes through low ebbs and there’s not enough around to keep you interested in what you yourself are doing. At least it has resulted in all of us being cult figures today somewhat, people are still awakening to my contributions to the scene all the time.
A last one… Perhaps a question that is the most obvious one and parts of it have been discussed already, but with two extended hibernations behind you: can we expect something from Abominator before 2035?
I’m afraid I can’t answer that question at this point in time. I am doing a new band continuing in the same vein called Brimstone Apostle with a new line up and a new batch of songs, but I can’t decide on whether this is Abominator under a different name. Obviously if Andrew and I want to record a new album before 2035 we have options, we could do an album written by AI either partially or entirely, depending on how such an experiment would work out and the laboratory doesn’t catch fire and explode in the process!!!
