Abaddon Incarnate Interview

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band, what your goals were when you first started, and what you are doing nowadays?

When we started out we wanted to play fast death metal, no body was doing it here in Ireland or the UK really. There was so much peaceville influenced stuff around. You the type of Death metal with doomy bits and mid paced drumming? we didn't understand why no one wanted to play blast beats so we set up the band in that vein. Also we were certain to sing about the occult etc because everyone is singing about either gore and porn or loosing their girlfriends to some goth suicide so we wanted to emulate greats like Immolation, Morbid Angel, Deicide except to be more brutal. Nowadays we still are focused on this aim but are using a Swedish sound we developed from recording our 2nd and 3rd album in Sweden. We love the crushing guitar tone and we are really taking in a lot of grind influence now, like nasum, rotten sound, napalm death but also bands who are not grind, guys like entombed are also influencing our sound. But we still have our hyper blasts and double pedal heavy metal edge you know? We definitely are a metal band first and foremost, a death grind metal band.

2. Were did you come up with the name for the band?

Well after we folded Bereaved in 1994 and reshuffled the line up we were getting drunk and smoking dope in Olans Apartment ( Old drummer ) And we had a list of about 50 names in a brainstorming session and Abaddon Incarnate was the only one everyone was comfortable with, Its taken form the christian bible, where "Abaddon" is the leader of Satan's Armies on earth when the apocolypse comes, "Incarnate" means he has taken human form, so we are, in a esoteric sense, a manifestation of anti human,anti social, anti life apocalyptic militarism, The abaddon incarnate. Sometimes people accuse us of taking the name from Warhammer games/ fiction, but we existed before the fictional Warhammer character,

3. How would you describe your musical style?

Death Grind

4. What releases have you put out so far?

1999 The last supper, 2001 nadir, 2004 dark crusade, 2009 cascade

5. What are some of the best gigs that you have played so far and how would you describe your shows?

My favourite in my memory and being the best gig was probably supporting Morbid angel in 1999 in Dublin, we opened the show and only played 3 songs but we were playing as the doors opened and 600 people filled the room and immediately started going crazy for us. Amazing show. Our shows are pretty straight up death metal shows we play tight and fast, lots of headbanging and some in between song banter with the audience.

6. Are there any plans for a U.S tour?

We would love to hit the US, we just need a promoter to handle the tour, we have been offered some shit before in the past but unfortunately the guys offering to organise it would be too inexperienced. But we are definitely always looking into making it happen

7. How would you describe your muscal progress over the years?

We started as a pretty bestial death metal band, got some grind parts and basically transformed into a death grind band, we kinda sound like mid nineties napalm death with a Swedish guitar sound and some slayer solos. People also mention Deranged when describing us, I cant hear it though.

8. What direction do you see the music heading into during the future/

Well we have some songs written and they are pretty much at the moment straight up grindcore, so I have some plans for slower parts, maybe some dark melody and maybe some nastier production. I think the production is too clean at the moment so the next stuff will be dirtier.

9. What are some of your influences as a musician and what influences do you have that are not music related?

Ive been influenced by terrorizor, morbid angel, entombed, brutal truth, napalm death, then some mainstream shit like Led Zep, hawkwind, Iron maiden.But I doubt you will ever hear the mainstream shit in our sound. I read a shit load of books and anything occult related I eat up and regurgitate into the music, especially anything Satanic. Also I read, ahem, a lot of warhammer fantasy ( but Ive never read the abaddon stuff haha ) Its pretty dark and grim stuff, magick related. Moorcock, Lovecraft anything dark and trippy. Ive taken alot of acid when I was a teenager so it kinds of colours any creativity I have too. I also write alot about nature, I do a shit load of hillwalking and mountain climbing and see alot of dark natural forces in the landscapes I visit so I try and put that in lyrics too.

10. What are you listening to nowadays new or old?

I got Macabre -Murder metal and dahmer on my MP3 player and Im ALLWAYS listening to Luciferion, great swedish death metal band. Ive also been listening to Nephridium - The great wave, Morphosis - rise of bastard deities and Putrefy - One nation under gore ( all Irish Bands ) Chilling out I listen to old Clannad ( Irish traditional ) and also Ive been wimping out on some Viking metal Enslaved and Bathory. Napalm deaths Diatribes is getting a lot of time too. Early the other Morning I had on Hellbastard to piss Steve F off, doubt he noticed though.

11. Does Paganism, Satanism or Occultism play a role in the music?

Yes it does, All songs I write are from a satanic viewpoint, So traditional European Satanism is a big factor in the music also I dabbled in the Seven Fold Sinister way and failed ( look it up ) so alot is to with the Initiation and failure of that particular quest. A couple of years ago I shared a Apartment with a phycotic Hindu ( Hi Dev ! ) who taught me all there is to know as a westerner about Vamachara and also about the Goddess Kali. So I wrote some songs about that. Also we are singing about the medieval witches, the remnants of paganism which survived through the dark age of christianity, we sing about the ancient solar cults, the original sun gods who are still shining away in the sky and one day will nova and swallow us all. And Luciferionism, the worship of pride - ambition - ego. Abaddon Incarnates Lyrics is heavily embroiled in the sinister and the occult.

12. What are some good films or literature that you would recommend?

I'm reading lots of non fiction war books at the moment which people are either into or not, some mountaineering shit too and also the epic "shogun"
But I guess as a influence on Abaddon Incarnates Atmosphere or personality, I would ask people to watch "Excalibur" "Dog Soldiers" the "Evil Dead 1 and 2" read a book called "Red Thirst" by pringle, " Nine Billion names of god" by Arthur C Clarke, Might is right by red beard, "Naos" by Thorald West.

13. How would you describe the extreme metal scene in Ireland?

Rich and varied, Primordial are the biggest, playing a kind of romantic pagan metal, also we have some real awesome death metal here too, for example, Putrefy, Morphosis, Warpath, nephridium. Also Check out Altar of plagues, as our Drummer johnny is playing with them at the moment on a European tour. They paly a kind of Post Black metal thing, like nuerosis mixed with primordial.

14. Any final words?

yes guys, you can get our new album directly from us abaddonincarnate@gmail.com or from red stream USA. Buy it, it wont disappoint.

15. Thanks for the interview?

Thanks for the interview. Much appreciated and good to hear from the USA.