Some time ago, we met a friend of ours and we started talking about music. We got surprised when he asked us about metal, because we knew it was not his taste at all, as he enjoyed a variety of other genres.
He asked us to let him listen to something crazy, something weird… the most unusual thing we had ever listened to and… the choice were the Abruptum, of course.
«Whooooo?» he asked us quite astounded, «The Abruptum…» we answered him without hesitation.
It was too much for him and after only five minutes he was totally disgusted, asking us how it could be possible that two musicians might listen to something which wasn’t even music for him…
While listening, he could only imagine souls torn apart by fire as they were casted down into hell.
«Well done, very good…» we told him, «…you figured it out on your own! Have you realized that Abruptum, with what you define as non-music, inspired you to imagine something? They made you feel a kind of emotion in only five minutes! How many hours of better and more structured music have you listened to and haven’t communicated absolutely nothing? This band is genius because it does express something, this is why we appreciate it».

So, who are Abruptum? How can they be so insane, so outlandish, so one of a kind? One thing’s for sure: you’ve got to be far from normal to write and perform music like they did.
The band was born in Stockholm in 1989 by Tony Särkkä, called “It” and Jim Berger, called “All”. The debut of the hungry Swedish duo included a third member playing bass, but all we know about him is his stage name “Ext”, who was pushed away in February 1990, after the recording of the first demo, titled “Abruptum”.
This first project could be considered as a sort of death metal, but it’s different from the overwhelming number of demos in that period out there due to the use of Latin in titles and lyrics and a remarkable attitude on making noises and unpleasant sounds, all of them Abruptum’s hallmarks through which they had clearly set themselves apart from all the bands in the entire extreme metal scene.
Two more demos followed; the some year in August “The Satanist Tunes” was released, it was entirely produced by It and All and the second one called “Orchestra of Dark” was published in October 1991 along with someone named Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson, a new member to replace Ext. He had the opportunity to make himself known very well in the metal world, not so much for the activism in the Abruptum, but for being the founder and the leader of the great Marduk.

The time of demos showed how the band had very clear ideas about the course to pursue, in fact, since the beginning its unmistakable style was marked by a very raw and caveman-like sound and the drum parts were alternated with slow and technically poor moments to unexpected blusters in blast beat, the guitars were very distorted and nearly unanalysable and the voice crying out in despair and anguish. At that time it was said that the members subjected themselves to actual physical torture to make the recordings more agonized and authentic, but there was no proof about it and lots of people thought the band came up with it just to attract attention.
The Abruptum were labelled as black metal/noise because of the lack of structures in their songs, excessive improvisation and the overwhelming noise produced by them.

In November 1991 an EP called “Evil” was released; it was supported by a little American record label and for this reason the band captured the interest of Her Majesty Euronymous who was highly fascinated by the terrible atmospheres produced, but more than anything by All’s inhuman screams called by him «The purest sound manifestation of wickedness».
So, Euronymous decided to sign them under a contract with his label, the Deathlike Silence Productions. Everything seemed to be going well till the crazy Swedish project experienced an initial setback, right at the best time…
Don’t miss the second part of this captivating as much as unusual story.