After a break of six long years Austria’s ABIGOR have finally returned to the scene with a new album entitled "Fractal Possession", which is their first musical sign of life ever since "Channelling The Quintessence Of Satan"… Reasons enough for us to dig up a pretty interesting 11 years old feature, that originally was published in Norway’s fine Imhotep Zine # 3 and that editor Roy let us use with kind permission… Interview answers by Peter aka P.K. Enjoy!

The following history was written by ABIGOR about a decade ago:
ABIGOR was formed in mid-summer 1993, by P.K. (guitars) and T.T. (drums, guitars), immediately after that Tharen joined ABIGOR as vocalist. The first demo “Ash Nazgh…” had been released in September 1993, in December they released the demo "Lux Devicta Est", in February 1994 the promo-tape, and in march 1994 the last official demo “Moonrise”. After “Moonrise” Tharen had been replaced through Silenius, who’s also involved in SUMMONING. The reason of the removal of Tharen was the lack of dedication and passivity from his side, so this was the only suitable solution for ABIGOR. After these four outstanding demo releases Napalm Records showed interest in ABIGOR and they signed a deal for two CDs. In June 1994 they entered the studio to record their debut CD, “Verwüstung / Invoke The Dark Age”. After some problems concerning the production of this CD, ‘cause of press-ban in Austria and Swiss, it was released in autumn 1994. The whole reactions concerning ABIGOR and their debut CD were great, and from this point on ABIGOR stands for individual Austrian Black Metal amongst the elite Black Metal bands of the world. And the creativity of ABIGOR didn’t decrease, so in December 1994 the entered again the studio to record the MCD “Orkblut – The Retaliation”, a concept album – the warrior epos. After this CD the deal with Napalm ended, but ABIGOR decided to stay on Napalm without any deal, and the co-operation still worked great, everything is based on respect and honesty. And in May 1995 ABIGOR recorded "Nachthymnen (From The Twilight Kingdom)”, and “Nachthymnen” has shown the whole capacity of the band, simply Black Metal at its best. In November 1995 they entered once again the studio to record “Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars”, it should have been released as a MCD in Spring 1996, but ABIGOR decided to not release it then. In May 1996 they recorded “Blut Aus Aeonen”, also a MCD concept, so these two concepts of MCDs turned out to be the two chapters of “Opus IV”, and this album showed furthermore a step forward in ABIGOR’s history, it is the definitive masterpiece of ABIGOR at the moment, most extreme and most technical Black Metal combined with the typical style of ABIGOR’s art. Plans for the future: the next ABIGOR album will be called “Apokalypse”, and they’re still working on the new material, which will be different to all other releases before, of course, instead of making a kind of part 2 of the previously albums, which is not what ABIGOR’s art stands for. Furthermore will ABIGOR stop to answer uninteresting and worthless interviews and letters, ‘cause they’re not willed to spend their whole time in answering mail. Music is still their way of self-realization and expressing thoughts concerning their believes, so being creative is for ABIGOR of course more important then to be drowned in mail

ABIGOR! What does this name mean?
“ABIGOR is a demon, the demon of war – a commander of the infernal legions of Satan. Those who knows all about gone and upcoming battles and wars. We’ve found the name in our former days, during studying black-arts and witchcraft. The first time the demon’s name appeared in a book called ‘Das Buch vom Teufel’ but also from other scripts we’ve got more information concerning the existence of ABIGOR. Concerning the ‘logo’, I would not call it logo, it’s for us more a kind of symbol which reflects and shows the spirit of ABIGOR, furthermore we don’t see the inverted cross and the inverted pentagram as a kind of rebellion or whatever, it has a personal value for us, that’s the main reason why we’ve chosen it.”

"Verwüstung / Invoke The Dark Age"… How do you look upon your debut album today? By taking a look at the English side of the album title I ask: what do you mean by the Dark Age? When is it to arrive?
“I’m still proud of it, at the time as we’ve released it, it has shown ABIGOR’s capacity as its best. But time has brought changes and as we’ve developed as individuals and our art through ABIGOR has developed, therefore it’s difficult to make comparisons how I see “Verwüstung” today… The Dark Age will be paradise for us, and hell for our enemies and adversaries. The time will rise when we sit beside Satan and watch you die… And at this moment we’ll feel harmony, when we’ll see mankind’s end.”

I guess you consider yourself to be a Black Metal band! What is Black Metal to you?
“Black Metal is in some ways the musical-aspect of our believes – the worshipping of Satan, darkness, death and all its powers – that’s also the reason why we’ve chosen to play Black Metal. With our art we want to realize ourselves, and to spread words of Satan. Christians are toadishing weaklings, no matter if they’re destroyed or not, we’ll rule, so we don’t really care too much about them. But of course does we support the war against Christianity, if a church is burned a part of my heart laughs, but the other part knows that this is not what we want to reach, nor do we come forward on our path with such actions… Sometimes I want to get rid of Christianity and all its likes (Islam, Jews, etc.), but actions like graveyard desecration and church burning just promote their values and therefore Christianity. So lots of individuals in the genre have to wake up – think and learn, realize you’re aims. Don’t fight to fight, fight to win! Of course some of you are just stupid kids and brainless idiots that hopefully will be trodden down in the dirt along with Christianity as soon as possible… We really find it sad that we’ve to use a lot of time trying to re-establish what so-called ‘self-declared’ Satanists have ruined for us, all well for all those who know what I am speaking about, all the true ones…”

"Orkblut – The Retaliation"… This is a concept album about a warrior! The story is named ‘Storming Onwards on Pagan Paths!’ Could you tell us about your aim with this album and why you want us to unite and combine our philosophies?
“There’s no special reason behind the concept of “Orkblut” for me. It’s an epos about a warrior, T.T. has written all lyrics on “Orkblut” so I can’t make exact statements concerning the concept of this release… Maybe the message is a kind of – …once flames burned high, I’ve seen my brothers die, revenge guides my way, all their churches will burn one day…”

‘Untamed Devastation’! The fight you describe in this part, is it the pagan warriors against Christian souls? "As your god falls by your side", it says. Whose god? When this god has fallen, is the war over then? Could you name some of the pagan gods?
“Damned, I am really tired in explaining, why, what, etc.!! We’re a Black Metal band therefore we support all anti-Christian and Satanic values. On our land once there were worshipped the pagan gods of the Germans and Celts – Landgodhtru – means – be true to the god of thy homeland – and that’s a term which fits. Through hundreds of years the nations of Europe have lived involved in the mystic of nature – the elements, the powers of life and death, the eternal being, existing, and leaving this earth… The power of the natural circles have been realized and worshipped. The culture where we descend, is a culture from Germans and Celts – a union which has brought a culture to life of might and wisdom. The pagan god like Wotan, have been worshipped on our land. But Christianity has infected the heart of Europe like a tumour, and it has extinguished all ways of freedom, of individual life. Wise Mages and Witches have been burned and killed in the name of Jesus, not only in the middle-ages, also hundreds of years before… Nowadays there’s not too much left of these union with nature and the wisdom of our ancestors, so it’s time to find ways back, maybe it’s the time to follow the call of our hearts, and with our believes we’ve broken these boundaries – we’re free and we’ve found a way of living in occultism and Satanism where the religious believes of our ancestors have also their place.”

A lot of Black Metallers (especially in Norway) have declared a kind of war against Christianity! Let us look into a crystal ball: in a distant future all Christians have vanished into a black hole! What then? Who to fight after the war? I mean, is it just a wish for attention which creates all these Black Metal warriors? You see, I think it is kind of naive to believe that the church will become destroyed as long as the society continues to develop like it does nowadays (He, he… maybe all Black metallers should become politicians). There will always be weak Christian minds… or am I totally on the far side in this question?
“As there can’t be only evil, there can’t be only goodness, therefore will there not only be Satanist, or only just Christians. It will / must always be a kind of positive and negative, one can’t exist without the other, maybe it’s always a kind of equilibrium. Fuck, difficult to describe. But in my opinion, those who really take it serious don’t wish to get any attention with their actions, it’s not a kind of – lack of affection, it’s hate towards the oppressors, named Christianity. But I agree that there’ll always be weak Christian minds, unfortunately with lots of influence in politic etc.”

"Nachthymnen (From The Twilight Kingdom)"… Why does the night attract you in such a matter that you created a hymn in honour of the night? Are you dark persons? In what way? Why not a hymn in favour of the day (without the day there would be no night)?
“Mortal minds fear the night and its hidden powers, the creatures and individuals which grow with the night… Maybe I am a dark person, everyone has a ‘second’ face, his true face – maybe mine is dark and gruesome, who cares, it’s important that I know what I am, and for what I stand for and believe in. We’re the wolves amongst the sheep, unseen…”

I must say that the layout is very good and such is the music! The music is based on melodies, at least that’s how I feel about it! But why is it wrong to try to discover something beautiful within your music? Most often female vocals are known to be something beautiful. Isn’t it a kind of contradiction then that you include such vocals? Cannot something dark, hateful and quite aggressive music like yours be beautiful in a way? I mean, a dark person will consider darkness to be beautiful, or…?
“There’s no contradiction at all. Of course will a dark person consider darkness as beautiful, nevertheless, we don’t want to sell albums just ‘cause of nice female vocals and nice synths. We want that people buy our releases ‘cause they understand our art and the way of expressing our thoughts concerning this existence and our believes… Fuck, seems that I am just babbling some shit here…"

Something I find attractive about your music is the disharmony! It especially occurs within "Opus IV", but it is surely present also on "Nachthymnen"! What I mean is the sudden and surprising changes you have within your songs! Any comments? Do you consider your music to be original? Does it have anything new to offer?
“I wouldn’t call our music that original, it’s simply ‘cause we know how to play our instruments and if more musicians would be able to do this like we do, there would be more great bands, and not just a mass of beginners. I would say with “Nachthymnen” and “Opus IV” we’ve reached the top of our musical capacity, and it’ll surely not too much increase on the next releases, but I think this doesn’t matter at all. Our musical standard is amongst to top, and we’ll of course do on our next releases something different, in some ways…”

What inspires you to write such music you write? In what way do you use your inspirations? I mean, do you think that when you listen to something you like very much you have to include it within ABIGOR, or…? If you want to, name some of your favourite bands! If not, let it be!
“I don’t know what inspires me to write such music, of course also other bands, but we don’t try to copy them, they’re simply an influence, not more nor less. I am the most creative if I listen to ‘bands’ like BRIGHTER DEATH NOW or IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES, but it depends on the mood. If one speaks from my personal fave bands, these are AURA NOIR, VED BUENS ENDE, ZYKLON-B, SLAYER, KREATOR, IN SLAUGHTER…, BRIGHTER DEATH…, MARDUK, ABRUPTUM AND MYSTICUM. Of course others too, but these mentioned are the best.”

‘Unleashed Axe-Age’… A typical Viking song, or what!!! To be serious: why did you write such a vision? Is this your way of paying honour to those who lived during that age called the Viking era? Do you look upon this era as a dark chapter in the history of the human being? What do you want to tell, if anything, to the bands you consider to be a part of the upcoming Viking trend?
“‘Cause of the same reason as I’ve written the other lyrics, simply a lyric which deal with northern mythology. We’ve mentioned this statement ‘cause at this time there were a kind of boom of ‘Viking-Black-Metal’ bands, and we were not willed in being linked with their genre. I don’t see this era as a dark chapter in Europe’s history, it was a time of glory and pride, but ‘Unleashed Axe-Age’ is not a hymn to those who lived in this time…"

‘Scars In The Landscape Of God’… Do you believe in God? I hope you do, because if you don’t, I cannot take this lyric seriously! I mean, how can you destroy the promised land of God if you don’t believe in him? Why do you have this will to destroy God? When you speak about ancient knowledge, do you think of Sumerian legends and knowledge?
“I believe in the existence of God, but not in his dogmas. Take a look, all religious-dogmas concerning the good and mighty God, are just guiding-lines to beg for heaven. I am interested in all ancient knowledge, not focused on Sumerian legends.”

Austria! Are you familiar with the history of your homeland? If so, could you tell us two historical events which you think have done good ‘things’ to Austria? How is it to live in Vienna? Are there forests or other kinds of landscapes nearby? I mean, if you like the woods or something, then how is it to live in Wien?
“I am interested in the migration of nations concerning my homeland and in the middle-ages, the rest is not worth my attention. About Vienna… it’s total fucking shit to live here, I hate it, too much people, too much pollution, too much Turks. Unfortunately it’s impossible to live in my old home, ‘cause of a job – too big distances to drive each day, also all other band-members live here. But we’re just here during the week, on weekend we’re all in our old homes, to drink, to meet old friends, to take walks through the woods. Of course there are lots of forests near Vienna, but it’s simply not the same as in my old home…”

What do you think of the world as it is today? Do you, as I do, think that people are far too materialistic? I mean, almost everything depends upon money! People are mostly consumers. Buy and consume, that are our lives! Do you think that people are afraid of getting in touch with themselves?
“It’s a world of materialism and nihilism in which we live. A mass-consumer society, based on dishonest and falseness, money rules the world. School, then working to earn money to satisfy the personal wishes, and then dying – a nice circle of living. In my opinion mostly people are too weak minded to open their soul and mind to other things, they don’t let their eyes see, nor their ears hear. I don’t belong to this way of existence, maybe once I’ve belonged to them, but I’ve developed, I belong to another species – a higher race, which stand upon these values of mortal minds.”

The former question brings me over to another aspect of humanity! Why do we in the West (Western-Europe and USA) help those in the third world? Should we help those when they are guilty of their own situation? I mean, they raise children as flies and then everything turns into poverty and over-population? Are these thoughts too cynic?
“Haha, your thoughts are not too cynic, I totally agree. In Austria it’s the shit with ex-Yugoslavia, collection-campaigns here and there, but why?! Maybe, France should transfer their A-bomb tests to Yugo, it would be the best solution. Hmm, I’ve a bit too strange view’ concerning this theme, and I am not willed to make too extreme official statements, so I’ll let it be….”

On "Opus IV", there is this strange photo of a chair! Why? What is this? It seems to be some kind of torture instrument!
“The chair is a torture chair, it represents a part of a great time. A time which is gone, but a time which will rise again.”

Then we have this Saturn-drawing! Within this we have the symbols for various planets; Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Neptune and the last one I believe is Mercury (correct me if I am wrong). What is the meaning of this drawing? Saturn is placed in the middle of it! Is there any particular reason for this?
“The drawing has been done by a friend of us, who is very into astrology. And it has a special reason for the chosen planet symbols, Saturn – the keeper of the threshold…”

"Opus IV" is divided into two parts! The first part is "Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars". What do you mean by this title? Is it Satan or some other demon-figure (i.e. ABIGOR) that lurks beyond the stars? When somebody lurks, then he / she is to enter in the end! Will the one with horns appear in the future? Or do you use Satan as a metaphor for your dark thoughts?
“T.T. is responsible for the whole lyrical-concept on “Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars”, and also for the title of “Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars”, so I am not able to make exact statements. But it is Satan who lurks beyond the stars, the horns will appears, soon… I for myself don’t see Satan as a metaphor, I believe in the existence of a ‘real’ Satan, a creature beyond good and evil, as I am.”

Do you live like you will? Will you reach your kingdom? I am referring to the interview in Sub Terra #0 where you stated that one has to do well and die like one lives! How is the right life in your opinion? I mean, you have to do what is positive to your own development to live right, and only by doing what is best for yourself, you will reach your kingdom. Is it right to have thoughts like ‘Christians must burn’? Do you really mean it if you look into your inner-self?
“As I’ve said, it’s important to find his personal way of living, no matter if it’s accepted by others or not. Always stand proud for what you believe in, hiding in the shadows is not the way of the strong. And if I look into my deepest innerself my thoughts are stranger and more extreme than ‘Christians must burn!’”

"Blut Aus Aeonen" is the other part of "Opus IV"… What is Aeonen? Has the cover drawing anything to do with the title of this part? I must really say that I like this cover, as I do with all your covers. What do you want to tell us by this cover drawing? To me, it seems like the reaper invites us to visit him! Is this cover a metaphor for an invitation to leave our lifes of materialism?
“Aeonen means Aeons in English, one can’t describe the meaning of this word exactly… The ‘reaper’ does not invite you, he’ll come to get your soul… He lurks since aeons, and when the time has come he strikes, and he’ll appear with death and fire… I don’t care if others waste their life, therefore is the cover not a metaphor for an invitation to leave their values of materialism.”

‘The Elder God (My Dragon Magic)’… Do you bow before the vampirelord? Do you consider dreams as something which is not reality? I mean, dreams are just a different kind of reality? Within dreams your inner-self do appear! How does the vampirelord gather his forces in what humanity name as dreams? The vampirelord is the source of all that is! Is he God? Is he an evil God? Did he reign when the Chaos of harmony ruled the Universe?
“I am the vampirelord, you’ve to bow down before me! My dreams are real, it just another dimension, unseen for you, but real for me. The vampirelord is a part of lord Satan, a part within myself. ‘Evil’ is just a word which can’t describe all my thoughts concerning this fact…”

How has the selling of ABIGOR been so far? You have sold more than 5000 copies of your first album? How has "Nachthymnen" sold? Does Napalm Records work well? Are you pleased by their work so far, concerning your albums?
““Verwüstung” has sold about 10000, “Orkblut” about 7000, “Nachthymnen” about 12000, and “Opus IV” 8000 at the moment (Sept. ‘96). Yeah, we’re to 100% satisfied with the work of Napalm and all upcoming releases will exclusively be released there. They’ve good distribution world-wide, also a sub label Napalm America, which works also good, furthermore is there not the distance between the band and the label, were all good friends, like a big family…”

How do you wish to end this interview? The space is yours…
“Well, thanx for an interesting and exhausting interview. Watch out for “Apokalypse” which will be released in 1997. If you want to contact us, enclose IRC, even so, no reply guaranteed. Everything is said.”

I am awaiting the "Apokalypse". Thank you very much for your answers, and even though you were damned tired in between I have to say that your answers were of quality, just as I like it.

www.infernalhorde.com/ABIGOR/

Interview: Roy Kristensen
Introduction: Frank

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