Ah ABRUPTUM, always the first band that comes to my mind when I think of really shitty bands. Let me just state something right off the bat: there’s bad, then there’s David Hasselhoff, then about 300 notches further down there’s ABRUPTUM. Not fun. What you get on here is a collection of the band’s two early demos (“Hextum Galaem”, “Satanist Tunes”) as well as the “Evil” EP. A bonus track, “De Profundis”, is tagged onto the end, for whatever it’s worth. For those unfamiliar with this band’s sound it is really nothing more than murky, hissing background ambience, with the occasional drum beat and vocals that alternate between what sounds like either whispering or heavy breathing and the odd scream. Cold electronic sounds appear here and there but they are so superfluous (pretty much like the rest of the instrumentation) that you’ll barely recognize it.

This “sound” was certainly an unorthodox take on the Black Metal aesthetic and I’m sure that the alleged in-studio torture and self-mutilation sessions endeared this band to a select few idiots, but one just cannot escape the cold hard fact that this sucks donkey balls. This ambient/noise shit sucked back then (the early 90s) and it sucks now (just listen to BLUT AUS NORD). It’s NOT metal let alone music and why Euronymous once described this band’s music as the “aural essence of pure evil” is simply beyond me. He must’ve been smoking some very funny cigarettes when making that statement… I’ll admit that this compilation is a little easier to stomach than most of this band’s other releases because it features tracks in the moderate 4-5 minute range and not the 30 and 60 minute monstrosities that IT and co would shat out in copious amounts on other releases. Jesus, this stuff is boring to listen to!! With that in mind I feel it pertinent to point out that no persons should listen to this while operating heavy machinery.

I’m glad that IT, the patron saint of evil dwarfs worldwide, packed up and left the scene (apparently after receiving death threats from Jon Nödtveidt and others), because if he hadn’t he might very well have continued this band to this very day. I entertain that thought and I vomit profusely. Morgan I thank you for putting this dog out of its misery! I won’t rate this due to two reasons: one, it’s a compilation so I don’t really have to assign a rating to it; and two, no barometer to gauge the absolute decrepit-ness of this band’s output has yet been developed. Instead of wasting your time with this abomination rather check out some of IT’s other/former bands like OPHTHALAMIA, WAR and the Industrial act 8^TH SIN.

(Online May 20, 2007)