ABOMINAT interview 2008

After the interview with DISKORD in the previous issue I decided to continue my investigation on the frozen ground of Norway searching for more death metal. Today let me introduce you to ABOMINAT, a band spawned by the early days of SUFFOCATION, whose EP « Storms of calamity » released by No Posers Please! is just staggering! Fans of « Effigy of the forgotten », beware!

-Hi there Lian, hope everything is ok now? I think it would be very useful to introduce ABOMINAT to our readers. Tell us everything about the band until this day, please.
Hi there Jim! Everything is ok up here! Ok, let’s just go straight at it: We are a death metal band hailing from Norway. We started out in...uhm..I dont remember...let’s just say 2002/2003 sometime! In the beginning it was just me and Ola (drummer), and we started jamming some random metal stuff. After a while we found out that death metal was the deal! We made a few songs and recorded a homemade demo (mandatory!) called "Deadworld". Øyvind spawned out of pure darkness and cold void, and joined in as second guitarist. We made some new stuff, and Øyvind summoned forth Erik to do session vocals for the "Storms of Calamity" EP, and he decided to be a permanent member after that. After lot of headbanging, beer drinking, some live shows and a couple of new tracks recorded, we (or at least I am) here to answer your questions. Fire at will, Jim!

-In 2006, you have released a 7"EP through No Posers Please, titled "Storms of calamity". The stuff played is brutal death metal in the vein of US gods SUFFOCATION, more precisely the "Effigy of the forgotten" era, right? Why such an infatuation for their way of playing death metal?
When we made the songs for that EP, we were very inspired by Suffocation, yes. Cannot deny that! heh! We really like that kind of style, because it’s so fucking intense! So many riffs, without being too technical, and without getting boring! That’s the essence of it, I guess. I mean, both "Effigy..." and "Pierced From Within" are fucking epitomes of greatness! Never a bad or fill in riff from beginning to end...can anyone NOT like that? One can only dream of creating something even close to that.

-SUFFOCATION is still a huge influence in the today brutal death metal scene. Are you interested by bands like DEFEATED SANITY, INVERACITY or SEVERED SAVIOR that are obviously disciples of SUFFOCATION but bringing the style on a higher step? Do you feel concerned by such bands?
Those bands mentioned are really good, no doubt about that, but Severed Savior and Defeated Sanity takes the whole thing a bit too far, in MY opinion. It gets kinda "too brutal", if you know what I mean? Inveracity has kept more of the simplicity, which I enjoy. I’m not sure what you mean by "concerned", but I guess I`m not hehe!

-What do you think of SUFFOCATION's actual musical orientation? "Souls to deny" is quite melodic but quite good and the self tilted album is more brutal. What's your all time favourite? Have you seen them on tour recently?
In my humble opinion, "Souls To Deny" and "Suffocation" are quite boring. I have given both the albums many chances, but they just don’t make me cum! Suffo would have been better off without those albums. My all time fave is no doubt "Effigy of the Forgotten"! What a classic! Non-stop intensity, and all that skank-beat! Gotta love it! That’s what I miss in the new releases, that good old feeling. It’s just not there.

-As mentioned above you release "Storms of calamity" in the 7"EP format. Why did you decide to release it as such? What do you find attractive in the vinyl format despite the fact it's less used today?
We didn’t have any plans at all when we recorded the EP. We were just gonna release it as a CDR demo...but then Hansj Jørgen of No Posers Please! appeared out of nowhere! He expressed his interest in our material, and explained that he was interested in releasing it as a 7". That was such a great deal, and we are ever thankful for that! I don’t know how to explain what’s so great about vinyl...its just the feeling..you know? Hehe, I guess you do. I get this good feeling when I play a vinyl. It actually makes the album better than if it had been on a CD! As I said; it’s hard to explain.

-In 2004 was released a demo called "Deadworld". How this was sounding back then? Were you knowing what ABOMINAT was going to play or were you searching for your identity?
I guess we were searching for our identity (we still are though). We had so many influences, and we wanted to play like them all! And we really sucked at playing our instruments back then, so we were very limited in our writing process, but fuck, its both cool and somewhat embarrassing to listen to it nowadays haha! It has some cool riffs though!

-In the previous issue of Putrefactive Effect, I had a chat with Hans of DISKORD and we were talking about the Norwegian metal scene, that is what mostly black metal oriented, but that there was an ever-growing death metal one with DISKORD, ABOMINAT or OBLITERATION. Can you talk a bit about your local underground or bands from Norway that must be checked? How can you explain the fact that death metal is at the second plan or less popular?
I really don’t know that much about the metal underground here in Norway, but at least I try to keep up on the death metal growth. Still there aren’t many death metal bands in Norway, but it up and coming for sure! Except for the bands you mentioned, I must mention Grotesque Hysterectomy and Execration! Great bands! Execration plays some really dark and fucking great death metal! As for Grotesque Hysterectomy I can say that I heard some new stuff they have recorded, and fuck yes! Can’t wait to hear more of it! I can also mention Lobotomized, which is Autopsy/Abscess/punk/white trash deluxe, and Hideous Deformity who plays a more modern and tech style of death metal. I might have forgotten some bands now, but what the hell hehe!

-In Norway, music is widely a cultural movement and bands can get financial help from government as well as bands into metal like ENSLAVED that got rewarded at some musical Awards? Don't you find this strange that extreme music got such exposition?
Actually no, I don’t. The bands which receive awards and stuff like that, are big and have huge fan bases. It’s just like any other non-metal band getting an award. But if bands like Abominat was nominated for such thing, I would have found it strange heh.

-Music is something that everyone got to study at school, right? So does it mean that everyone has access to music to a certain extent? Is music seen as a competition between bands: I mean when ABOMINAT plays a gig some guys come to the show not to listen, see or bang their head, but to see if you are not more skilled than them? Do you see what I mean?
Everyone has access to music to a certain extent, yes. But not everyone is good at it, decides to do anything about it, or actually like it at all. Luckily! Can you imagine all the crap? I sure can’t haha. It’s always gonna be some "competitive" persons or bands out there, but we are not that at all! We seriously don’t give a fuck if someone is more skilled than us. Who cares? It’s all about writing and playing the music you like!

-Let's go back to ABOMINAT. What's the band status today? You've been into some line-up changes in the past, so now do you have a steady line-up?
I believe our current line-up is steady. At least I hope so, because it works out really great as it is, and it would seriously suck major cock to find any replacement members! But if someone decides to move on and do something else, no one can stop them from doing that. But as I said, I really think its steady as fuck as it is now!

-And what about some new material? Are you going to release a full length album or something else? Will it always be in the "Storms of calamity" vein?
I don’t know if you have heard our new tracks? If you haven’t, go check on our myspace page! I guess we will stay in the vein of the new tracks (kind of more intense than Storms of Calamity), but we will try to add some new elements, to spice it up a bit! We will keep having many different riffs in each song, and maybe add some more "evil" (in lack of better words) elements, but without loosing any intensity. It will be fast and intense, but that doesn’t mean it has to be blasting/grinding all the way! A lot of bands really doesn’t understand that.

-I have noticed that ABOMINAT drummer doesn't use triggered drums. Was this something clear at the beginning or that wasn't an option? What do you think of the use of triggered drums today? Some guys can now reach inhuman speed or can sound like machines and I think that in a long term everything will unfortunately sound the same.
Triggering isn’t an option. The drums loose a lot of feeling if they are triggered. Sounds so sterile! I guess you can mix and trix and do magic so that triggered drums doesn’t sound sterile and boring too, but what’s the point in triggering then? Anyway, we really don’t think much about it, because it isn’t an option. I don’t give a fuck about how fast a drummer can play. Only geeks do that.

-OK here are some short questions:

-What are your 5 favourite albums?

Oh shit...hmmm...ok Ill try:

Suffocation - Effigy of The Forgotten
Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness
Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of Violence
Morbid angel - Altars of Madness
Autopsy - Severed Survival

...but seriously man, haha, those are just from the top of my head, there are so many albums that deserves to be on that list just as much!

-If death metal was a beer?

Then I would have been an alcoholic hehe!

-The most underrated band ever?

Uhm...that’s a tough one! I’ll go for DR.SHRINKER. Fucking classic!! But I don’t think they are very underrated, just kind of unknown. Yeye, whatever. If you haven’t heard them, check them out!

-If you were able to kill someone and be sure to not get caught, who will be executed?

Hehe! So many...so many! Just one?? Ok...hmmm..lets go for a random one on my list and say: Paris Hilton.

-Do you know the Finnish band TORTURE KILLER which is a death metal act heavily influenced by SIX FEET UNDER. On their 2nd album, Chris Barns did the vocals. Could you imagine ABOMINAT doing the same but with Frank Mullen on vocals, what would be your reaction if he would call you tomorrow to sing on your new stuff?
Haha, I can imagine that, but that would have been a bit too much over the top! If he called me tomorrow I would have said "Hell no man! Stick to your own band!" heh.

-Hey Lian, I stop now wasting your time with my stupid questions. Thanks a lot for your answers. Keep it brutal with ABOMINAT! Final words are yours.
Hey Jim! It’s about time I stop wasting the time of your readers with my stupid answers! Thanks a lot for your questions! Keep it brutal with Putrefactive Effect! Final words were mine!

http://www.myspace.com/abominat