Absu

[Eoin McLove]

I've been getting into Absu recently.  They were always a band I thought sounded alright and was at one of their gigs some years ago which was cool,  despite Proscriptor's sometimes silly onstage persona and his diamond headband and Madonna mic, which was all super fabulous and necro.

I picked up 'Tara' a coupe of weeks ago and was well impressed with the quality of songwriting so I bought 'Barathrum VITRIOL' which I've been listening to this morning and I might like even more... The utterly deadly production is working wonders for me. That mix of death metal riffs mixed with black metal pretentiousness is the business in this context.

Where do I go next with them?

[Caomhaoin]

Tara is a tremendous record, insane songwriting and drumming quality. Try not to speed on the car with 'Stone of Destiny' on!

You can't really go wrong with them. That 'Abzu' was ferocious.

[Pagan Waltar]

If you are enjoying the sublime "Tara" then definitely finish of the Celtic trilogy of "The Third Storm of Cythrául" and "In the Eyes of Ioldánach" ep.

I'm not familar with the first two lps but I actually have the "Mythological Occult Metal: 1991-2001" compilation coming in the post to rectify.

Both "Absu" and "Abzu" are savage as well.

[spiritcrusher]

Eyes of Ioldánach is 4 songs of barnstorming heavy metal, definitely listen to that (although you'll know one of the songs from Tara). Great production too.
Absu has great songs but I always thought the production was a bit soft or something. Never felt like it had the bite of the other stuff.
Their last album Abzu rectifies the production though. Pity they never got to finish off that Absu/Abzu/Apzu trilogy.
Don't actually know the pre-Tara stuff overly well actually.

[Eoin McLove]

Cheers chaps. Looks like the quality is consistent across the board so I'll just dive in. 

[Slaughterday]

The Sun of Tiphareth is their best but you can't go wrong with any of the material. Anything after 'The Third Storm of Cythraul' is a bit more polished but still deadly. Reminds me of how the newer D666 albums sound, bit more advanced on the production side of things but still great songs.

Utterly savage band. Proscriptor's antics only add to the madness. Such an entertaining magick spastic.

[Ducky]

They're one of those bands with a "nice" discography - it's a decent size without being overwhelming, there's a few distinct phases but they're all pretty close to their core sound and the quality is consistent throughout.

"Absu" is my favourite, it is pretty polished sounding but I think that fits with the mad bastard proggy freakouts on it.

Small word of warning about Tara if you're buying a CD of it - it has one of those shitty copy prevention features that unfortunately stops it from playing on a lot of CD players too.

The In the Eyes of Loldanach version of "Never Blow Out the Eastern Candle" should go in the "best drum intro" thread. Savage

[Pagan Waltar]

I've been getting into Absu recently.

Seeing as you are exploring Absu / Melechesh at the moment, give Rudra from Singapore a spin. They are much more Death / Thrash than Black / Thrash but they incorporate their native instruments and singing / chanting into very well executed material. Brilliantly produced as well.

[Eoin McLove]

I remember checking them out years ago and they didn't do it for me.  I'll see if what they are at works for me now.

[mickO)))]

Sun of Tiphareth is the best closely followed by the 3rd storm. If you like VITRIOL then you will like everything that's the only release that in my opinon is quite different from the rest.

For me the only album I don't really like is Abzu I seem to be in the minority on that. Thanks to that crying asshole that use to be in the band we won't ever get to see the third album in the trilogy some of us had been waiting almost a decade for it.

Absu are one of those bands were most people will give you a different answer as to which album they think is best which shows how great the discography is.

[O Drighes]

"The Third Storm..." is their best IMO, although I think "The Sun of Tipareth" is a close second.

You can check the pre Absu band DOLMEN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIKTK3su-v8
or MORBID SCREAM from which they played two covers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihk3Hr0vT4o

[Eoin McLove]

Sun of Tiphareth is the best closely followed by the 3rd storm. If you like VITRIOL then you will like everything that's the only release that in my opinon is quite different from the rest.

For me the only album I don't really like is Abzu I seem to be in the minority on that. Thanks to that crying asshole that use to be in the band we won't ever get to see the third album in the trilogy some of us had been waiting almost a decade for it.

Absu are one of those bands were most people will give you a different answer as to which album they think is best which shows how great the discography is.

What was the story there again? I remember someone had a sex change but why did it kill the band?

[mickO)))]

The person that had the sex change was asked to leave the band they claim it's because they had a sex change, Proscriptor says it was for other reasons. The person that got kicked out also wrote some of the music that was recorded for the upcoming album so I am guessing to avoid hassle from the usual suspects Proscriptor ended the band and now will not release the new album.

No matter what the reasoning was it is Proscriptors band he's put 20+ years of his life into it so I think he's earned the right to say who can and can't be a member. I think he handled the situation in the best way possible even though for me as a fan it's really shitty that I will both never see the band live again or hear the new album that I have been waiting so long for. It was one of those that has been coming... since around 2014 and was first announced just after the last album came out.

He is doing live vocals for Zemial now.

[Eoin McLove]

It was the Zemial link that sparked my interest in diving into Absu.

Pity that a band that was so long running fell apart over such bullshit.  You'd wonder why Proscriptor didn't just scrap the album (or the half of it he didn't write) and restart from there. 

Isn't he singing for Zemial? I imagine what's his name is still the sole creative force behind Zemial and Proscriptor seems to be a force for creativity in his own right so I wonder if it's only a matter of time before he reboots Absu or starts something new.

[mickO)))]

I am just speculating but I think maybe he was worried about getting shit in his personal life over what happened if Absu continued. The good guys at metal sucks did a few articles on it and he may have been worried about the scene police showing up at his place of work or calling his boss demanding he be fired. I have no idea what he does outside of music but I doubt he was able to live off Absu they weren't even a band that toured the majority of the year.

He is definitely one of the most talented people not only in black metal but in all of metal. One of the greatest drummers of all time as well. You probably know but he auditioned for Slayer back in 2001 they said they didn't ask him to join because his beliefs with magick and all that stuff were just way too out there even for them. But he says he was just used a ploy to get Dave back.

The crypt did a great series of boxsets for all the material up to and including Tara I have all of them and they turned out amazing. As far as I know only the VITRIOL one is hard to find these days so if you were interested in the others you should be able to track them down and if not the albums have been reissued many times as standard vinyl. I think even Osmose are doing a set of standard LPs right now.

Also if you get sucked into the lyrics the bands website the 77th novel has a glossary explaining all of the terms used in the lyrics in each song on each release they also came with each album. My vinyl aren't with me now so last year made a booklet out of the glossary from the website in work and now have a copy where I currently am as well. It really interesting stuff.