ABHORRATION was formed in early 2020, with members coming from bands like CONDOR, NEKROMANTHEON and OBLITERATION. What was the driving force behind founding ABHORRATION? What can you express through this band that you couldn’t in your previous projects?“To make Death Metal as it was before being detached from Thrash. When it was fast, aggressive and evil. None of us have played this style earlier, so it was to a certain extent new for us. At the time of forming the band, I had had a rediscovery of the masterpiece that is “Altars Of Madness” and had been obsessing over it for a few years, as well as “Resurrection” by SADISTIC INTENT. So it made sense to give it a go. This sort of Death Metal is very dynamic, and so allows for a lot of creativity, which I enjoy. I can’t speak for the other guys, but I find this band to be the most interesting band so far in my ‘career’.”
The band’s first official release was the demo “After Winter Comes War”, released in 2021. None of the demo tracks were re-recorded for “Demonolatry”. Was this a conscious decision to keep each of your releases kind of unique? Or did you think that your new song material was just better compared to the demo material?“The EP tracks are slightly more thrashy than the album, but I wouldn’t find any of them out of place if they were on the record. However, it was a conscious decision, partly to keep the releases unique and separate, but mostly because the EP songs didn’t need re-recording. I like the idea of a song or release capturing what the band was like at a certain point in time, and I think it represents the start of the band well. No release will ever be perfect, but in this case I’d say its good enough.”
You released your debut album “Demonolatry” a few months ago. It’s definitely one of the most aggressive and uncompromising Death Metal releases from last year. Was there a specific vision or philosophy when you started with the songwriting for the album?
“To an extent, yes. We wrote songs in the order they appear on the album, so ‘Chamber Of Agilarept’ was always meant to be the opener, as an infernal fist in the face. I think we all wanted to make a really aggressive album, while at the same time keeping focus on the riffs, the melodies and groove. I guess ‘groove’ and ‘melodic’ are loaded words in the context of Extreme Metal, but to me they’re both vital for a record to be memorable. We also tried to give each song its own feeling, in an effort to keep things interesting.”
There are very strong MORBID ANGEL influences in your songwriting, especially in the guitar solo work. Take for example tracks like ‘Ai Apaec’, ‘Chamber Of Agilarept’ and the title track which have parts which do remind of MORBID ANGEL classics like ‘Rebel Lands’ and ‘Chapel Of Ghouls’.“It’s interesting that you mention ‘Rebel Lands’, cause I’ve never been a huge fan of “Blessed Are The Sick”. So that song has in no way been in my consciousness when writing for the album. Everything from “Abominations Of Desolation” through “Altars Of Madness” sure has though! It’s no secret what our influences are, and I’m sure certain parts are more than similar. But we’ve never tried to rip anything off. People often refer to the mid-pace section in ‘Ai Apaec’ as a ‘Chapel Of Ghouls’ rip-off. Maybe it is, but it was unconscious if so.”
The raw production and sound of “Demonolatry” perfectly complements the old school Death Metal approach of the band. “Demonolatry” was apparently recorded and mixed by your guitarist Arild at his house over a period of four months. How did this DIY approach spread over a rather long time affect the final result? Do you think you will work this way again in the future?
“The initial plan was to finish it in a month, but both recording and mixing stretched out. The combination of his house being about an hour from Oslo, me being the only one with a car, and also having a new born kid, just made it take us much longer than expected. We struggled a lot with the drum sound which took a while, and whenever I had to do another vocal take it was two hours travel. I don’t think it really affected the result in any other way than giving us time to fine tune. We’ll continue doing it ourselves, but I think we’d rather set aside a week than do it on the weekends again.”
Kristian Valbo from OBLITERATION contributed the artwork and logo, while Rick Warkill created the evil creature for the inlay. How important is the visual aesthetic of the band, and how did these collaborations come about?“Kristian actually made the hungry Satan on the info side of the inlay, while Rick made the small gargoyle on the lyric side. It’s important for the visual aspects to fit the music, in the same way as a band pic or a live performance. Of course it’s not a make-or-break sort of thing, but it adds to the whole package. As for the collaboration, it’s pretty straightforward. Arild plays in OBLITERATION with Kristian, and I played with Rick in HECATOMB. Kristian is one of the best artists we know, and he clearly manages to capture our style in a really good way. We all really hope he will continue making our artwork in the future!”
I have the impression that the distribution of “Demonolatry” is a bit of a challenge, as copies of “Demonolatry” are not that easy to find. I only recently found a copy through the webshop of High Roller Records. Are you satisfied with how “Demonolatry” has been made available to fans or is there room for improvement?
“I think the demand took us all a bit by surprise, so Invictus are doing their best to make the album available for everyone who wants a copy. Within 2025, everyone interested should be able to get their hands on a copy!”
“Demonolatry” has been well received, landing at #6 on Voices From The Darkside’s top releases of 2024. How do you feel about this recognition in such a competitive year for Death Metal?“I’m happy with most of the feedback we’ve gotten. It’s of course a bit frustrating when people (in my mind) exaggerate the amount of worshipping going on on the album. But that’s bound to happen when you have as clear sources of inspiration as we do. It’s not often there are multiple releases that I really enjoy, but 2024 was a very strong year for old school ;etal. BLACK CURSE and SOVEREIGN being the top examples in my book, both records being some of very few new releases that actually stick for more than a week or two.”
Despite the band’s growing reputation, I haven’t read a single interview with ABHORRATION yet. Is this a deliberate choice or have you just not been approached that often yet for interviews?
“I’ve actually answered shitloads of interviews in the past few months, but I guess they haven’t been spread much! None of us are big on social media, so you’ll have to follow the interviewer to find them.”
You and drummer Øyvind Kvam used to play in the band CONDOR in the past. The CONDOR album “Unstoppable Power” is just great, but also almost impossible to find these days. Do you think that album will be reissued in the future one day?
“Honestly, we had a bit of a falling out with High Roller, so they won’t be doing it, that’s for sure. One problem is that we have absolutely no use for a bunch of vinyls lying around, so we’ll have to get some cash for the release, something which is not too common in the underground. However, there might be some news on that this year, hopefully.”
You have gigs lined up in Berlin, Helsinki and Oslo, with a European tour alongside HAR planned for August / September 2025. What can fans expect from ABHORRATION live?“Expect total death thrashing madness!”
What’s next for ABHORRATION? Do you have any plans for new material or re-releases in the near future?
“Gigs! We’re fully booked for the year, so we’ll mainly focus on preparing as much as we can for each concert and do some song writing between. More shows will be announced in due time. As for releases, the record is being repressed at the moment, and a compilation record entitled “Abhorrent Entities…” containing the EP and the demo we sold at Killtown in 2023 will be out in not too long.”
www.facebook.com/abhorration666, https://abhorration666.bandcamp.com
Steven Willems