"Abruptum is a Swedish black metal, dark ambient, and power-electronics project band. It is run by 'Evil' of Marduk, but the band was formed in 1989 by 'IT'. IT was one of the leaders of the True Satanist Horde, part of the Swedish Black metal scene. Euronymous of Mayhem described Abruptum as 'the audial essence of pure black evil'. IT had already planned to create the band in 1987, but it was not until 1990 that he found the right members. That same year they recorded their first two demos. After the release of the first demo, they fired their bass player. After the release of a 7" in 1991, another member named 'All' began to drink heavily and was also asked to leave (but reunited with IT to form Vondur). IT then found a new member in Evil.
Abruptum was signed to Euronymous's label Deathlike Silence Productions, on which they released two albums. IT considered Euronymous "a true ally". After his murder, Abruptum contributed the opening track to the compilation album 'Nordic Metal: A Tribute to Euronymous'. It has been wrongly rumored IT left the band and black metal scene following numerous threats made to him and to his family. According to IT, that was not at all the reason for his departure from the scene, as he had simply been wanting to move on for some time. He joined an industrial band called '8th Sin', and was briefly involved with '(Total) War' along with All. All worked with IT again in 'Ophthalamia', but that group also disbanded. IT eventually died on 8 February 2017, aged 44. Evil brought Abruptum back in 2008.
While Abruptum is classified as a black metal/dark ambient band, the group took a different approach to their music. They did not focus on creating any structured songs, and mostly just made noise. Earlier material had shorter songs but their later releases typically included one or two tracks with more than forty minutes of music. They primarily used standard drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and other various instruments, but what stood out even more was the screaming, as the band supposedly tortured and cut each other during their recordings. Whether this is true or not has never really been verified. After IT left the band, Evil changed the band's musical style to more dark ambient/noise and dropped most of the metal sound."
Interview With IT For Petrified Zine 1994...
Hail IT, so what is the current line- up for Abruptum?
IT: I hail you Jon...The Line-up is as follows: Evil - guitars, piano, effects, torture. IT - drums, screams, torture & hell. Whatever other forces have to do with our recording sessions they can not be mentioned here.
Why have "Ext" and "All" left the Band?
IT: "Ext" was afraid of the pure evil that lurked behind our backs all the time...Being a member of Abruptum is no childs play. He heard the result of the first demo and got so afraid that he joined the nearest church - idiot!! "All", on the other hand, left me shortly before the recording of our EP...He couldn't handle the alcohol and he couldn't handle himself so he went for a long journey...to find himself...It must have surely been a journey in darkness...However, he has now returned stronger than ever doing the vocals in Opthalamia and Vondur. He lives at my place here in Stockholm and shares his thoughts with me...He is surely a great brother...
What has been released so far through Abruptum?
IT: 3 demos, "Evil" EP, "Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me" CD/LP, "In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo In Aetemum In Triumpho Tenehrarum " CD , some t-shirts. Now we'll do a picture EP, a picture LP of "In Umbra...", some more t-shirts, of course our new album. Also a re-release of the "Evil" EP on vinyl and a release with first two demos and the EP on a CD is planned. We will also be on the Necropolis Records Compilation.
Tell us how you go by recording the album?
IT: Its true ritualistic and tenebrous/torturous music! Whatever happens in the studio while recording is both too painful and too private to discuss, those fuckoffs out there who do not believe in our torture: go and die! Abruptum are original and we are the superior ones so everybody spreading rumors are just jealous and have to he killed for that.
What is the reason for such hateful and sick music?
IT: We are the chosen ones to do this, we are the most hateful and sick persons ever, That's why.
"Evil" stated that the new recording will have lyrics, is this true?
IT: We have always have some amount of lyrix in our music more or less, that will also be the case this time.
What will the new CD he titled and what will it be comprised of?
IT: I'm still working on it...so you'II just have to wait for it, but I 'm absolutely sure that the new album will crush everything in its way.
What do you do in Ophthalamia? What will the title of the new album be?
IT: I do all the music and lyrics. I play the guitars, do whispers, vocals, screams and keep the band together (which is not always the easiest thing to do). What I hate though is that everyone seems to think of Ophthalamia as a hobby band. This is absolutely not the case! Opthalamia is a band that is fighting hard and you can hear that on our new album. We are not taking this lightly, Opthalamia belongs to the elite of Sweden. The new CD is titled "Via Dolorosa".
I have heard of your solo-project "Vondur ", What is this like?
IT: "Vondur" is not a solo project. "All" has joined so now Vondur consists of the two original members of Abruptum. Vondur are about to sign to Necropolis Records for a full-length CD and just like Abruptum & Opthalamia, Vondur is very original & hateful and very hard to describe. Just buy the fuckin' CD when it is released and you'll see.
Can you now tell us about the "True Satanist Horde" and what it's about?
IT: I formed it back in 1990, it's an organization for black, Satanic warheads, people who live on the edge, on the warpath and live only for Satan, our goals I won't discuss but they are hardly not that difficult to guess.
I heard that the Norwegian Black Circle was a part of or formed because of the True Satanist Horde, is this true?
IT: Yes, Euronymous and Cunt Grishfuck were members in the organization and after awhile they wanted to call it the Norwegian Horde, something different. So they did. I guess that is the big problem, breaking up, going own ways, being too proud hen we should stay close.
I have also heard that you were a true ally of Euronymouse, how did you get to know him?
IT: First I was in contact with Dead from Mayhem but suddenly I did not receive anymore letters from him. Anyway, I got a letter from Euronymous instead where he described Dead's suicide in detail. I am a true ally of Euronymous as I know he was a true ally of me.
Count Grishnackh is not your ally, why is this?
IT: I think everyone can find that out themselves. The cunt must pay for what he did.
What will happen to him if you ever meet-up with him?
IT: He will meet his end.
Whats your opinion of the Black Metal scene now?
IT: Opinion? It's only stupid to bother that much about the scene of today. I haven't got the interest to build myself a opinion about it, I could care less.
Black Metal once brought fear, now it's a huge trend scene, in your opinion, what do you think will happen in the future?
IT: Yes, the future is nice to wonder I about...I do it everyday...but I only think about things that are of great importance to me and not about stupid things as the future of Black Metal. Black Metal is the greatest music, but I concentrate my thoughts on Satan instead.
What bands do you hate?
IT: Hmmm...I think it will be easier for me to tell you what bands I like instead...or the bands I hate would take the whole space in your mag. I enjoy the four bands of Abruptum, Marduk, Opthalamia, and Dissection. I also think Satanized, Dark Funeral and Vondur is ok. From Norway comes three great bands, namely: Mysticum, Mayhem, and Enslaved. I also enjoy Darkthrone and Isengard, besides that...well...
Thanks for your time, comments?
IT: Thank you. I would like to say that I hate you all and that we are the superior humans. Everybody else should kill themselves or we will do it for you. Soon the great 4th Reich will rise. You're probably stupid enough to buy our new album as well. Fuck You! Darkness it'll be.
From "Lamentations Of The Flame Princess" Zine 2002...
I’ve never heard any of the ABRUPTUM stuff because from all descriptions, I just had no interest in it. Is it true that they were cutting and burning themselves in the studio and recording it?
That’s really true. I recorded everything with ABRUPTUM. I am the one that made them sound evil. They were really bad. They played like assholes. They sounded horrible. I took the reverb unit and cranked it to
eleven and made it sound like it was recorded in a fucking church. The biggest reverb ever made on an album. That made it sound, even to me, really fucking evil. Imagine standing in a school or something that is totally silent, then all of a sudden you hear something really disharmonic and weird echoing throughout the halls. I get goosebumps talking about it. It’s weird. This sound coming from somewhere, very distant, very evil, very eerie, strange. It’s not here. Where the hell does it come from? That’s the sound of the ABRUPTUM demos, that’s what made people freak out. This is the most evil recording. There’s something in the ambience of that. They played like crap. There were no songs. They just tuned down the guitars and I played drums for a few songs. All of a sudden, they were not playing, they were out cutting themselves in the arm and smearing blood all over them and just whipping the guitar with something they found on the floor. It was this big jam session, with the lights out of course. Just this one candle so I could see the recording unit. It’s true, they cut themselves real bad. I remember one really fun thing about the ABRUPTUM sessions. Tony was a pretty small guy. He wanted to crawl under a sofa, put a microphone in there, we would put the sofa over him and sit in it, so when he had this panic attack, it should be recorded on tape. It was so really really funny. And he never got the panic attack! It was hilarious! But they were really cutting themselves with the knives I had around the studio. The knives were from like 1970, they’d never been sharpened, and I used them to cut metal stuff and whatever. Your average scissors were a lot sharper. They were trying really hard to cut themselves. It didn’t work, so they’re biting each other, “Get some blood here man!” So they start burning themselves. “Ow! That hurt!” It was not what you imagine. It was fun. There was a lot of blood. It was hilarious. For the album recording, there were tons of people coming down to the studio. I can’t remember, like ten people just hanging out. Weird times. The classic was the recording of the second album, I just soundchecked one guitar and one drum kit. “That’s good. I’m going home now, and I’ll be back in 45 minutes.” So I got in my car and went back, I had to wait a few minutes, out of tape, turn on the lights, bye then! The fastest album recording in history. In real time! I recorded them to DAT. No mixdown, no nothing. I just recorded to the master tape live. That’s the second album. Really funny. Didn’t cost them many Swedish crowns, I can tell you! It must have sold 10,000 copies! Remember the movie Prince of Darkness? There’s something about that movie, even just looking at the poster gives me chills. It inspired the hell out of me. Tony was into similar stuff. He wanted to sense the evil. The soundtrack to Omen is one of the most evil recordings ever made and it’s just strings, you know? This feeling you get in your body when you hear it, and I admit that I don’t care for the albums of ABRUPTUM, they’re just a lot of reverb. But the first demo, there was something happening in the rehearsal room, in the studio, whatever you want to call it. It was a really evil feeling in the air. I was pretty close to Tony around the time and I remember going to the gas station to buy the tapes to copy the demos, I helped him to copy the tape cover. Of course it was all black. I distributed it to some friends, I sold some. You and I could easily do something that sounded similar. Just a bunch of banging with effects. There was something, it was an accident in a way, that sound that came up. It was unique. No one had ever heard anything like it. More related to industrial music than black metal. It took everybody by surprise because there was a weird ambience in the music. That’s what got them signed.
For OPHTHALAMIA’s Via Dolorosa, is OPHTHALAMIA studios Unisound?
Yeah.
How’d you get the name ‘The Skull’ for that one? They credited you Dan ‘The Skull’ Swanö.
OK. The skull was my stage name for a band I had together with Tony. He was It, and I was The Skull. That album, the reputation he’s got from everything else he’s got, he’s got Lenny Kravitz licks all over that album! Bizarre. I listened to the first OPHTHALAMIA demo the other day, I was going through a bunch of DATs the other day, the old Digital Audio Tape format. Really small cassette. That’s when I found the first mix of the Light’s Bane and I found all this other stuff. Then I found the OPHTHALAMIA demo with the stuff from that album called Journey in Darkness. It’s excellent! The demo is ten times better than the album. The guy from DISSECTION is singing on it, but Tony himself is singing on the demo. But Tony never had the guts to sing on the albums. I don’t know why. He’s got an excellent growling voice, really deep. That’s OPHTHALAMIA. When this guy from DISSECTION is singing, it sounds too much like anything else. On the demo, It was singing, and they mixed the growls with whispers. It was pretty unique at the time and then everyone started whispering.
That’s an interesting trend for extreme metal. About that DISSECTION guy, with the time you spent around him, was there any sign that he was the kind of nutcase that was going to go out and try to kill people?
Nope. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know him in person at all. I knew he was just a little kid, really, I think. He was very influenced by stronger personalities. When he hooked up with this Vlad guy, who was not a musician at all really, just an evil dude, he just bonded with him in a way. I remember being in Gothenburg a few years ago, just before they did this horrible thing. I was at a pub hanging out, and I saw him there. I went up and said “How are you?” There was a sparkle in his eye, and he looked like he was happy to see me, it was nice. Then all of a sudden this Vlad guy came up to him, and just one look, the spark was gone, and Vlad just left. No bye bye, he just left. What was that? “Oh, that’s the Vlad guy.” It’s hard to explain. I’d never experienced that before, I was totally lost the entire evening. Did I say something? What happened? They say he was totally obsessed with this Vlad guy. He was obviously something he’d wanted to be, that kind of evil character. Not a musician, just evil. He was a bit weirder when he was drinking. We were at this party, and he just started banging on doors and people would open the doors and he would just start screaming in their face. Really weird behavior. I don’t know if he was trying to be funny. I thought it was irresponsible, a childish act to do something like that. This is not fun, it’s just upsetting his neighbors. His idea of having a good time was not my idea of a good time. He just got carried away with this other guys. I guess it was one of those “Show me what you got. He’s a fucking faggot, kill him!” Just under the influence, he just did it. He could be influenced by group pressure. And he did it, and destroyed one of the best careers ever in this genre. Everything would have been so much different if DISSECTION would have continued putting out albums. They’re already started marketing his return, because apparently he’s going to be out of jail in the not far future. Rumor going around is that he has two albums written and ready to go. He’s got plenty of time. Talking about some of these characters we’re talking about, I can see why people can grow out of metal if that’s the kind of metal they’re into. But finishing off the Tony subject, I know his sister’s husband. He’s the guitar player in BRAINDEAD. We’re also connected in the selling stuff industry. I speak to him sometimes on the phone, and I tell him to just say hi to Tony. I haven’t spoken to him in years and years. When they killed this guy in Gothenburg, he just snapped from the whole industry. He moved away. He doesn’t have anything to do with it anymore. He doesn’t play, doesn’t do anything. He’s just a normal guy. He just came to his senses, I guess. “This is too much, I quit. Bye bye.” Broke all the bonds with the scene. He’s just somewhere in Stockholm being a normal guy. It’s such a weird thing to go from one extreme to a different extreme. He’s totally out of the whole thing. That’s just me filling in, it’s better off to just leave the shit. Two dead and one in jail from the most influential black metal band… and I never saw BURZUM as being influential. He was quite a character. But Euronymous was very important for the current sound of black metal. He was a lot older than the other guys. He was very mature, he introduced new concepts in this genre that would never have existed if not for him. He never got the credit for it. But I hear what he did, it was all over all the albums from the Swedish bands. Before they managed to get this Mysteriis album out. Once they chose these weird vocals for it, it destroyed the reputation. Imagine classic death metal growling and black metal vocals on this De Mysteriis album. It would have been a killer, even to me.
