Oct 282022
 

Seasons are a state of mind. Here in the U.S. Pacific Northwest where I live the rains have finally come, along with a chill in the air. After an unusually warm and dry early fall, normalcy has arrived, and The Big Dark is under way. Two days ago the sun set at 6:00 p.m., and that will not happen again until March of next year. From now on, for that many months, people will be waking up in the dark, going home in the dark, and sodden clouds will obscure the sun during many days even when it is above the horizon.

Throughout the Northern Hemisphere winter is approaching, or has already arrived, even if it will only bring a reprieve from heat in some places rather than the true feeling of nature dying or hibernating that pervades in the far north. But regardless of the locale, and even in the other half of the world where summer is approaching, we can send our minds into dark and daunting days through music such as you’re about to hear.

What we have for you is the full streaming premiere of an hour-long three-way split called The Call To Silence, and as its title suggests, “The release calls on humanity to return to silence, that harmony of the soundless cosmic vacuum that almost our entire Universe consists of”. Continue reading »

Jul 242022
 


“Dracula’s castle” by Daniele Serra

I’m afraid I have no time to set the stage today with introductory comments, other than to fore-warn you that the moods of today’s selections are intensely dark and packed with pain. Paradoxically, the intensity may make you feel terrifyingly alive and perversely spellbound.

ABIGORUM (Georgia/Germany)

In 2021 Abigorum released their latest album, Vergessene Stille. On that record, the band had been reduced to the size of a duo, combining the talents of Russian musician Aleksey Korolyov (who now lives in Georgia) and German guitarist/vocalist Tino Thiele (from Wulfgar and Metamorph).

In the lead-in to that album we premiered a song named “Erhebt eure mit Blut gefüllten Hörner“, which managed to create an experience that was both hypnotizing and nightmarish, both hauntingly seductive and terrorizing. It was not alone in those respects, as we’ve been reminded by a new video for another song off that album. Continue reading »

Jan 262021
 

 

Abigorum began as the solo project of Russian musician Aleksey Korolyov, who is also the owner of Satanath Records. Operating on his own, and drawing upon traditions of doom, black metal, and dark ambient music, he recorded a sequence of releases that included a collaboration with Cryostasium (2016’s Unholy Ghost Liturgy) and a split with Striborg (2018’s Spectral Shadows). After that he expanded the line-up of Abigorum with the addition of two German musicians — guitarist/vocalist Tino Thiele (from Wulfgar and Metamorph) and bassist Sandra Batsch — and together they completed a 2019 debut album named Exaltatus Mechanism.

Ms. Batsch subsequently departed, and now the remaining duo of Korolyov and Thiele have recorded a new Abigorum album named Vergessene Stille that’s set for release by a consortium of labels on April 13th. Today we present the premiere of its first advance track, “Erhebt eure mit Blut gefüllten Hörner“, which manages to create an experience that’s both hypnotizing and nightmarish, both hauntingly seductive and terrorizing. Continue reading »

Jun 092019
 

 

Abigorum began as the solo project of Russian musician Aleksey Korolyov, who is also the owner of Satanath Records. Operating on his own, and drawing upon traditions of doom, black metal, and dark ambient music, he recorded a sequence of releases that included a collaboration with Cryostasium (2016’s Unholy Ghost Liturgy) and a split with Striborg (2018’s Spectral Shadows). Since then he has expanded the line-up of Abigorum with the addition of two German musicians — guitarist/vocalist Tino Thiele (from Wulfgar and Metamorph) and bassist Sandra Batsch — and together they have completed a debut album named Exaltatus Mechanism.

The album, whose lyrics are in German, “tells the story of the fascination of the black and grey side of evil, the ridicule of vices and hatred for people who are accustomed to a normal life and do not understand that everything around them is just an illusion, and that they are slaves”. The album will be jointly released on June 14th by Satanath Records and the U.S. label Death Portal Studio, and what we have for you today is the second advance track from the album released so far — “Über Dich” (over you or above you). Continue reading »

Oct 222018
 

 

Hallucinogens alter perceptions, thoughts, and moods by interfering with normal brain chemistry interactions, creating sensations and visions that may seem real though they are not — or perhaps instead revealing aspects of true reality that are hidden by the illusions of daily life. But the ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs and plant extracts isn’t the only way to become disconnected from your body and from what passes for reality, and to become more susceptible to visions. You could, for example, just listen to the music of Abigorum.

Abigorum is the name of a project from Saint Petersburg, Russia, that produces alchemical reactions using ingredients drawn from ambient music, black metal, and doom. It’s the creation of Aleksey Korolyov, who is also the label boss of Satanath Records and the founder of the ambient formation Satanath. Abigorum’s newest output, which is set for release on November 6th, is a split named Spectral Shadows with the long-running Australian project Striborg, whose music has evolved over time and now merits the label “blackwave”. From that split we present the premiere of “The Darkness of Aeon“. Continue reading »