Abramelin (band)

Last updated

Abramelin
Also known asAcheron (1988–1994)
OriginMelbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genres Death metal
Years active1988–2002, 2016–present
LabelsCorpsegrinder, Thrust/Shock, Repulse
Members
  • Simon Dower
  • Tim Aldridge
  • Matt Wilcock
  • Rob Mollica
  • Dave Haley
Past members
  • David Abbott
  • Derek Ackary
  • Jason Black
  • Michael Colton
  • Jason Kells
  • Jason Dutton
  • Justin Wornes
  • Craig Bailey
  • Mark Shuliga
  • Euan Heriot
  • Matt Rizzo
  • Matt "Skitz" Sanders
  • Grant Karajic
  • Lance Leembruggen

Abramelin is an Australian death metal band, which formed as Acheron in 1988 and were one of the first such groups in the country. They were a main influence on the development of Australian heavy metal music in the early 1990s. [1] The name change occurred in 1994 to avoid confusion with a similarly named international group; the new name was adopted from The Book of Abramelin , which concerns a mage of the same name. Members of Abramelin have also been in Blood Duster, The Berzerker, The Amenta, and Akercocke. Abramelin supported tours by Napalm Death (1995), Paradise Lost, Cathedral (March 1996) and Cradle of Filth (2001). They released two studio albums, Abramelin (1995) and Deadspeak (2000), before disbanding in 2002. Abramelin reformed in 2016. In May 2020 the band released their third album Never Enough Snuff.

Contents

Acheron

Abramelin were formed in Melbourne in 1988 under the name Acheron as a death metal group by David Abbott on guitars, Derek Ackary on bass guitar, Jason Black on guitars, Michael Colton on drums and Simon Dower on lead vocals. Tim Aldridge replaced Black and the band recorded a demo track, "Eternal Suffering", before Jason Dutton and Justin Wornes took the places of Colton and Ackary. French label Corpsegrinder Records released a three-track EP, "Deprived of Afterlife", in 1991, with the line-up of Abbott on lead guitar, Aldridge on lead guitars, Dower on lead vocals, Dutton on drums and Wornes on bass guitar. [2]

Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noticed their "dark, heavy sound owed much to European and American death metal groups such as Bathory, Entombed, Obituary, Therion, Immolation and General Surgery." [2] They were a part of the early "death/grindcore/thrash metal scene" in the late 1980s to early 1990s. [2] In September 2008 Dower told Chris Archer of Vomitose that Acheron's sound had progressed by "learning how to play our instruments and sing helped a lot. At that time we were all listening to early demos of Carnage, Entombed, Grave, Morbid Angel, etc., all of which had a definite influence on our song writing and overall sound, that and just the natural progression of the band’s direction." [3] A track from their EP later appeared on the Dutch compilation album, Appointment with Fear.

Following the release of the EP, Dutton was replaced by Craig Bailey. In 1992 after Abbott's departure, he was temporarily replaced by Jason Kells (of Australian doom band, diSEMBOWELMENT) who, in turn, was replaced by Mark Schuliga, bass player for the similarly aligned Necrotomy. In November 1993 Acheron supported United Kingdom extreme metallers, Carcass, on the Australian leg of that group's Heartwork Tour: Supreme Blitz to Downunder. [4] They also supported tours by Morbid Angel and Pungent Stench. Bailey left in 1993 and was replaced by Euan Heriot. The group had found that an American black metal band also had the name, Acheron. [2] Hence, inspired by The Book of Abramelin , which concerns a 14th-century alchemist-mage, the group took up their new name.

Renamed

The band changed its name in 1990. [5] Abramelin's first release under that name was in 1994: a four-track EP, Transgression from Acheron, after which Schuliga departed. Thrust Records, a subsidiary of Australian label, Shock Records, issued their debut studio album of the same name in 1995. [2] McFarlane felt their "sound had taken on a sludge-like heaviness only matched by the likes of Brisbane band Misery." [2] Abramelin supported tours by Napalm Death (1995), Paradise Lost and Cathedral (March 1996). [2] The CD was withdrawn from sale in Western Australia due to explicit lyrics dealing with sexual violence against children and necrophilia. Rob Mollica, the drummer with a Melbourne death metal band, Earth, joined Abramelin as a guitarist but Heriot soon departed to uphold commitments with two other bands he was also playing drums for, Blood Duster and Fracture. Ex-Blood Duster drummer Matt Rizzo took Heriot's place on drums, in Abramelin, for a brief stint but after the break-up of Damaged he too was replaced, by Matt "Skitz" Sanders (Sadistik Exekution). [2]

Late in 1997, Abramelin featured at Metal for the Brain, an Australian heavy metal festival. Spanish label, Repulse Records, picked up the debut for wider release but gave it almost no promotional support. Abramelin was re-released in Australia with Transgression from Acheron included, and this time without a lyric sheet in the packaging to avoid it being banned for a second time.

After this Abramelin were dormant as a live band for a few years. Their second album Deadspeak was gradually recorded, originally with drums by Sanders although his tracks were later re-recorded using a drum machine. It was released in 2000 on Shock, which featured only Dower on vocals and Aldridge performing all the music. With the live line-up of Aldridge, Dower, Rizzo, Grant Karajic on bass guitar and Matt Wilcock on guitar; Abramelin supported Cradle of Filth and again played at Metal for the Brain. Following this however, the group effectively disbanded. Further recording was rumoured but no new material emerged. Wilcock moved to Steel Affliction and The Berzerker, and then was with UK black/death metal band, Akercocke. Rizzo again became a member of Blood Duster.

On 21 October 2013 Abramelin issued a 3× CD, compilation album, Transgressing the Afterlife – The Complete Recordings 1988–2002. [6] Kev Rowland of Metal Music Archives described its "total length is nearly four hours long! It is clearly a labour of love, and one thing that really impressed me is the quality of the sound throughout. Normally when faced with complete sets like this, much of it is of interest just for the historical context as opposed to playing this for pleasure (step forward Autopsy for example). But, even the rehearsal tracks sound as if they were recorded with a view for possible release as the sound is good and clear." [7]

In 2016, reformed with the line-up of Dower, Aldridge, Wilcock, Mollica and Psycroptic drummer Dave Haley for some live dates. [8] The band's third album, Never Enough Snuff, was released on May 15, 2020. [9]

Band members

Timeline

Abramelin (band)

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Compilations

Demos

Related Research Articles

<i>Heartwork</i> 1993 studio album by Carcass

Heartwork is the fourth studio album by English extreme metal band Carcass. The album was released in the UK by Earache Records on 18 October 1993, and in the United States on 11 January 1994 by Columbia Records, making it the band's only major label release. Heartwork has been described as the band's "breakthrough" and "mid-period masterpiece", as well as a landmark album in melodic death metal. The album was recorded at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool from 18 May – 21 June 1993.

Melodic death metal is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal. The genre features the heaviness of death metal but with highly melodic or harmonized guitar riffs and solos, and often features high-pitched shrieked vocals alongside the low-pitched growls commonly featured in traditional death metal. Pioneered by the English heavy metal band Carcass with their 1993 album Heartwork, melodic death metal developed further in Sweden in the mid-1990s. The Swedish death metal scene did much to popularise the style, soon centering in the "Gothenburg metal" scene. At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul, Dark Tranquillity's The Gallery, and In Flames' The Jester Race, all released in the mid-1990s, were highly influential albums in melodic death metal, with At the Gates and In Flames being the two most common influences on North American 2000s heavy metal bands. Many American heavy metal bands emulated At the Gates' sound, resulting in the usage of the phrase "At the Gates worship".

Blood Duster was an Australian extreme metal and stoner rock band from Melbourne. Their name came from the song "Blood Duster" by John Zorn, from the 1989 album Naked City.

Venomous Concept is an American hardcore punk band formed by Kevin Sharp of Brutal Truth and Shane Embury of Napalm Death in 2004. Sharp and Embury were joined by Danny Herrera and Buzz Osborne, who was later replaced by Danny Lilker. They have released three albums: Retroactive Abortion (2004), Poisoned Apple (2008), and Kick Me Silly VCIII (2016). They have also released two split albums: one with Japanese grindcore band 324 (2006), and the other with Australian extreme metal band Blood Duster (2008). The band's name is a play on Poison Idea, in the style of name-mangling Japanese hardcore acts.

<i>Stigmata</i> (Arch Enemy album) 1998 studio album by Arch Enemy

Stigmata is the second studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. The album was Arch Enemy's first to see worldwide release, in Europe and North America on Century Media Records, and in Japan again on Toy's Factory records. Stigmata features session drummer Peter Wildoer, who had also appeared in Christopher Amott's solo project Armageddon on the 1997 album Crossing the Rubicon, shortly before the recording of the album. The album was reissued on 25 May 2009, featuring a new layout, packaging, and bonus tracks. Stigmata not only contains a title track, but a track named after their previous album as well. The Sri Lankan metal band Stigmata named themselves after this album. The album was reissued again on 28 April 2023 in various formats, along with a visualiser for “Bridge of Destiny”.

<i>Cunt</i> (album) 2000 studio album by Blood Duster

Cunt is the third full-length album by Australian grindcore band Blood Duster. Despite, or because of, its deliberately vulgar and anti-commercialist title, Cunt proved to be the band's most successful release to that point of their career, earning them high amounts of radio play, especially by Triple J, even though its title did make life difficult for the distributors and it did not make it into many shops for the same reason.

<i>The Goat of Mendes</i> 2001 studio album by Akercocke

The Goat of Mendes is the second studio album by English death metal band Akercocke. It was released on 11 September 2001, through Peaceville Records.

The Berzerker are an Australian/British industrial death metal band from Melbourne formed in 1995. The band's music, heavily influenced by older death metal and grindcore bands such as Carcass, Obituary, and Napalm Death, can be characterised as a fusion of these with speedcore, and gabber. The band's founding member Luke Kenny described the band's style as industrial death metal.

The Amenta are an Australian extreme metal band formed in 1997 as Crucible of Agony. By 2002 the line-up was Cesium 137 on lead vocals, Diazanon on drums, Ethion on guitar, Endrin on bass guitar and Chlordane on keyboards. In 2009 the line-up had Miehs and Pope joined by Cain Cressall on vocals, Dan Quinlan on bass guitar and Robin Stone on drums. The group has issued three studio albums, Occasus (2004), n0n (2008), and Flesh Is Heir (2013). The group went on an indefinite hiatus in 2013, but reunited in 2020.

Acheron was an American death/black metal band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that was formed by Vincent Crowley in 1988. The band is named after the mythological river Acheron located in the underground kingdom of Hades in ancient Greek mythology. They are not to be confused with 1990s Australian death metal band Acheron, nor the 1980s/1990s American power metal band Acheron, nor any of several lesser known European thrash and death metal bands with similar names between the 1980s and the present.

<i>Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone</i> 2005 studio album by Akercocke

Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone is the fourth studio album by English extreme metal band Akercocke. It was released independently on October 10, 2005, and on February 7, 2006 through Earache Records. This album is the first Akercocke release not to feature the original line-up of the band, with Matt Wilcock instead of Paul Scanlan on guitar; though the majority of the material was co-written with Paul Scanlan before he was fired.

<i>Kill Fuck Die</i> 1997 studio album by W.A.S.P.

Kill Fuck Die is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band W.A.S.P., released by Castle Records in 1997.

<i>Dissimulate</i> (album) 2002 studio album by The Berzerker

Dissimulate is the second album, released in 2002, by the death metal band The Berzerker. This is the only full-length album the band has released that features an actual drummer instead of a drum machine.

<i>World of Lies</i> 2005 studio album by The Berzerker

World of Lies, released in 2005, is the third album by the band The Berzerker. This release marked a change in the band's sound as the tempo was slower on most tracks.

<i>Abramelin</i> (album) 1995 studio album by Abramelin

Abramelin is the debut album by Australian death metal band Abramelin. It was released in 1995 by Thrust Records. Shortly after its release, the album was banned in Australia due to the highly offensive nature of the lyrics. The album was reissued by Repulse Records in October 1997 due to lack of distribution outside of Australia, and again in 1998 by Thrust Records as a double-CD which includes the Transgression from Acheron EP, and featured no lyrics in the CD booklet. It was manufactured and distributed through Shock Records.

<i>Str8 Outta Northcote</i> 1997 studio album by Blood Duster

Str8 Outta Northcote is the second full-length album from Australian grindcore band Blood Duster. The title is a parody of the N.W.A album, Straight Outta Compton. Northcote is the suburb where most of the band's members lived at that time.

Matt "Skitz" Sanders is an Australian extreme metal drummer and musician. In 1989 he founded a "hatecore" band, Damaged. He has played with many Australian heavy metal bands including King Parrot, Blood Duster, Abramelin, Walk the Earth, Suicide Bombers, Deströyer 666, and Sadistik Exekution. In 2006 he formed Terrorust with members of previous bands.

<i>Lyden nå</i> 2007 studio album by Blood Duster

Lyden Nå is the sixth and final full-length studio album from Australian death metal/grindcore band Blood Duster. The title translates to The Now Sound from Norwegian and was given this name in tribute to the early black metal scene. This is a triple album containing two full CDs and a downloadable track. CD one features death rock while the second CD is grindcore, the downloadable track is a 21-minute drone doom piece.

David Haley is an Australian musician. He is the drummer of death metal bands Psycroptic, Abramelin and Werewolves, and black metal bands Ruins and KING.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Parrot (band)</span> Australian grindcore band

King Parrot are an Australian grindcore band formed in Melbourne in 2010. They have released three studio albums: Bite Your Head Off (2012), Dead Set (2015) and Ugly Produce (2017).

References

  1. ↑ Ausmetalguide.com Archived 25 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'Abramelin'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop . St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN   1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004.
  3. ↑ Archer (aka Vomitfiend), Chris (September 2008). "Abramelin Interview". Vomitose (3). Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Carcass – 1993 Australian Heartwork Tour Poster". T-Shirt Slayer. 17 November 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Abramelin biography". metallian.com. 21 May 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  6. ↑ "Transgressing the Afterlife – The Complete Recordings 1988–2002". AllMusic . Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  7. ↑ Rowland, Kev. "Transgressing the Afterlife – Abramelin". Metal Music Archives. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  8. ↑ Brian Giffin (12 September 2016). "Metal for Melbourne Returns". LoudMag. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  9. ↑ "ABRAMELIN (VIC) Release New Album 'Never Enough Snuff' May 15th & Second New Track OUT NOW!". Music Link WA. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.