AABODE - Sounds Of Coming Darkness (Industrial Death Metal - Interview with Aabstracter).
- Please introduce yourself and let me know how it all began with the band ?
Hi Rough Times ! Thank you for having us ! My name is Max, known as Aabstracter. I'm playing guitar, bass and I take care of drum programming in a duo named Aabode. The other member is Aabyssal, she's the vocalist and she's in charge of electronics, sampling and some drum programming too. We're from Nancy, France.
We're a band and also in a relationship at the same time, so we just met together because of the music we liked and after being together, we started to make music together. We played in different projects, bands, some of them were serious, others remained at the demo stage. After years of trying to do things, we just decided to stick with an idea that was here a long time ago : make the most disturbing and ugly music possible with an "avant garde" vision.
- Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
Well, I'm not sure you should listen to us at all cost haha. Aabode is very strange, so it's totally OK to like / hate what we do.
In our mind, we tried to explain our vision of an Urban / Futuristic Death Metal. It's likely the disturbance of bands like Portal, the Death Metal roots of classical bands like Morbid Angel and the Breakcore / Electronic beats of Mysticum, Blacklodge or Neo Inferno 262.
We're from the city, born or just living in since years and in Eastern France. It's cold, grey, foggy and there's a huge Industrial past in our area. We're just kinda describing our environment. We also have incorporated electronic / witch house, or Trap / Drill sounds, samples or rhythms patterns. Even if the concept is futuristic, it's those elements who connect to our reality. In some way, it's like they were some lost media found centuries later.
- Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
In terms of musical inspirations and for everything that stick with Death Metal : Portal, Gorguts, Arkhon Infaustus, Dead Congregation, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse post-"Kill" era (that strange crawling mid-tempo riffs, essentially) and a lot of bands from the "dissonant Death metal" sphere : Ulcerate, Convulsing, Defacement, Gigan, Replicant. Obviously, on the Industrial side of things : Mysticum, Aborym, Blacklodge, Neo Inferno 262, Autokrator, Dodheimsgard. That's for Extreme Indus Metal, but you can add classical influences, like Godflesh or Nine Inch Nails. Also, some Black Metal too : basically Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega and other "experimental / dissonant" acts.
I will also mention other genres : a lot of Trap / Rap / Hip-Hop, especially the second wave of French Rap (SCH, PNL, Freeze Corleone, Alpha Wann, Booba). In the electronic domain : Salem, CRIM3S, Crystal Castles, Kontravoid...
Lyrically, there's two main things : First, I pay a lot of attention to the phonetics, and the global "sound" of the lyrics. In some way, you can compare this to the poetry of Gherasim Luca, the mumble rap or... Portal again. Also, regarding the second thing : the two main inspirations were the Armored Core video game series and Neon Genesis Evangelion. I try to write by applying the concepts of environmental storytelling, or "narrative of the environnements". It's something you can see, as an exemple, in some video-games, like Bioshock or Dark Souls. My goal is to apply pictures in the head of the reader, not sentences.
Regarding the message it's basically : A post-apocalyptic world, where humanity is long dead. Automated weapons continue to fire at nothing, causing absurd deluges of missiles. Regarding environmental storytelling, it's as if a kind of futuristic archaeologist found this place, observed, and discovered lost, deteriorated files (represented by the samples).
That's not very optimistic but just after I ended up writing those lyrics, I looked at the actual wars around the world : using hundreds of drones, thousands of missiles or rockets... Not so far from my lyrics.
- About your latest release ?
Our album is called "Neo-Age". It was recorded between July 2023 and January 2024. We recorded everything at home. We sent everything to Julien Rosenberger (mostly known for his Atmospheric Black Metal band Loth) who worked on the mix and mastering. I send him my congratulations and respect because Aabode is hell on earth in terms of mixing (at least, that was my feeling when I tried to mix it...).
We worked with Stefan Thanneur (also known as Manifeste) for the artwork. We love his work, I was blown away by the cover artworks he has done for Necrowretch or Year of no Light. Moreover, he played in a band (now split-up) named Chaos Echoes. This was a very strong band, very experimental. So, I said to myself that he would understand the music we make.
"Neo-Age" will be released on December 6th 2024n through polish label Godz Ov War Productions, in CD format. And honestly, that's really insane, considering we're nothing and we're out of nowhere. We listen to a lot of bands that were released by Godz of War before joining the roster : Odraza, Triumvir Foul, Autokrator, Abyssal, Biesy, Morgue, to name a few...You can get it via Godz Ov War Shop, or through our Bandcamp.
- Future plans ?
Another album, already working on it !
- Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
Hmm, that's a hard one haha. Honestly, I think it would be a "collaborative" record or split. I'm thinking about some records like Blut Aus Nord / Phobos "Triunity", Blut Aus Nord / Aevangelist "Codex Obscura Nomina, Full of Hell and Merzbow, The Body and Thou... I would really like to work on a record with some band we love, and I will be very excited to see where this kind of thing goes !
- You’re a two-piece band — do you think some live-appearances are possible ?
It's possible but that means a ton of things ! First things first, we're a couple (and a family). So, when one of us is doing something with Aabode, the other can't do anything.
We should recruit at least 3 people, take time to work a set-list, build a show, find the good people etc etc.
So, at the moment, nothing is settled but honestly we will focus on the studio for now, and maybe in 4/5 years we will think about live-appearances.
- Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ?
There's a lot of great bands here ! I would like to make a special "Hi" to Wolok / La Division Mentale. We're not friends, just internet-related, but that's the "local" band I've listened to the most and one of the reasons why I make this music today (could have been quoted higher alongside those Mysticum, Aborym name-dropping...). Also, regarding Aabyssal, same thing, we don't know them but : she's hugely influenced by Scorpion Violente's record "Uberschleiss", a Metz-based duo of Minimal / Ritual / Weird Techno.
So, for people we know, you can quote Death Whore (really strong Death Metal + Hardcore), some people in D.C.A., Senestra and obviously Loth.
- Last word is yours..
Thanks for having us ! We hope you'll enjoy our record.
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