Abigor

Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age (1994)

Abigor's compositional style is to align sequences of dream-like episodes that shift and swirl around each other, creating mental journeys to obscure and forbidden places. Transitions between these sequences are generally fairly rapid, which creates a kaleidoscopic, whirlwind effect. Due to this the music feels like it is in constant motion with many colliding moods and themes, masterfully melded together.  Some of these range between chaotic, hypnotic, awe-inspiring, destructive, spiralling, and mournful. 

The closest comparison to Abigor's unique sound, at least in terms of aesthetic, is probably Sacramentum. However this music has no sign of the ice cold mist and fog filled sound of the latter, but instead is filled with landscapes of obscurantist mysticism. Clean guitar arpeggios are often layered over distorted tremolo of chord sections to add to the mysterious feel. When a more aggressive intent is needed the band makes use of the punk inspired power chord riffing used so successfully in the Black Metal of the Norse variety.  There are also twisted and dark melodies that have been adapted from those found in the musics of the Germanic and Austrian cultures of yore. The sense of chaos and movement in the music is also heightened by the hyperactive drumming.

This darkly beautiful music has an inherent sense of danger,  like the conjuring of a spell or some kind of dark magic and in the hands of lesser bands this approach could become wildly incoherent but Abigor's sense of cosmic scale holds it together by a thread, giving the music a charming sense of vulnerability.