Guest Article by Ollie Smart
[I began writing this essay before the passing of P.K., and it is dedicated to his legendary art]
Channeling the Quintessence of Satan (1999) is the high point of Abigor’s experimental black metal. Abigor’s sixth studio LP is the culmination of the extensive body of work that the band produced over the course of their thirteen releases before this one, consisting of five studio albums and a large collection of EPs and demos. Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is a singular work of extreme metal, owing to Abigor’s inspired and successful fusion of outlandish and idiosyncratic European black metal melody with the atonal heaviness and rhythmic groove of American death metal.
Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is also Abigor’s finest consolidation of the wide scope of their sonic toolbox, which contains sampling, acoustic instrumentation, keyboards and synthesisers, and an array of approaches towards vocals. Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is Abigor’s hardest, grooviest album until this point in their trajectory, and it is the first overtly death metal-influenced release from the first half of their copious bank of material. In contrast to Channeling the Quintessence of Satan, Abigor’s discography before their sixth LP is a distinctly symphonic black metal body of work, à la Emperor. The prime example of this key stylistic feature of their early output is Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom) (1995), arguably the greatest realisation of their symphonic aesthetic. Supreme Immortal Art (1998), the record directly preceding Channelling the Quintessence of Satan and another of their finest works, can be ranked alongside Nachthymnen in terms of its over-the-top symphonic aesthetic. However, at the same time, Supreme Immortal Art contains the nascent beginnings of the groove and heaviness that Abigor would perfect on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan, and overdo a little on the following record, Satanized (2001).
On the first riff of the opening track, ‘Dawn of Human Dust’ (0:43), the death metal influence is noticeable in the bouncy drum rhythm and mid-tempo riff, which, tonally, is also a distinctly black metal-sounding riff at the same time. By this slightly contradictory statement, I mean to draw attention to the unique amalgam of the two decidedly different styles (death and black) that Abigor managed to fuse so effectively on this record.
For example, Channeling the Quintessence of Satan shows Abigor confidently displaying a newfound sense of groove, one that was perhaps inspired by groundbreaking contemporaneous American death metal bands, such as Immolation and Suffocation, with much of the fretcraft and drumming on the record recalling the types of riffs and drum patterns heard in some of the very best American death metal. For example, the ridiculously groovy NYDM-style riff and drum pattern at 3:35 in ‘Wildfire and Desire’ could happily exist somewhere on Suffocation’s legendary Breeding the Spawn (1993), or Immolation’s Dawn of Possession (1991). Peter Kubik (P.K.) (R.I.P.) and Thomas Tannenberger (T.T.) (the core songwriting duo in Abigor) also incorporate several crushing slam riffs, which are, conventionally speaking, one of the most un-black metal riff styles, but are a hallmark of death metal. However, Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is, first and foremost, an unmistakably second wave black metal work. The typical features of the sub-genre, such as fast rudimentary blast beats, gothic tremolo riffs, and a shrieked vocal delivery, are the essential ingredients into which Abigor adds their death metal seasoning.
Abigor was formed by Peter Kubik and Thomas Tannenberger in 1993 in Vienna, Austria, and was one of the finest and most original acts to emerge from the second wave of European black metal, and, indeed, black metal overall. The lyrical and dark, lilting melodies characteristic of Abigor’s music are displayed at their peak powers on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan. However, for what is really the first time in their discography, Abigor’s unique melodic repertoire is perfectly complemented by distinctly heavy death metal-inspired riffs which have not been more crushing nor groovier on any of Abigor’s releases until this one.
Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is also the first record on which Abigor completely disposes of their trademark symphonic tendencies, which are a central feature in all of their previous work (excluding the classic Apokalypse EP from 1997, which inaugurated a more aggressive and stripped-back direction for their music to take). Most notably, there are little-to-no keyboards on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan. Alongside the death metal injection, this absence of keys is the most noteworthy aesthetic departure from their characteristic sound until this point, one that is a lush, romantic, forlorn, and symphonic black metal sound, where electric organs, horns, and choirs are used frequently (sometimes too excessively for this listener’s liking). However, these core features of Abigor’s early sound are radically dropped on their sixth LP, as though they were never employed in the first place, and where the surreal and fire-licked hellscape of Channeling the Quintessence of Satan provides an atmosphere so diabolical, hellish, and alien, that it is a standalone monument in Abigor’s discography, and in black metal overall. Choosing to omit their overreliance on keyboards on this occasion results in a record far less decorative and gothic than their previous material, instead showcasing Abigor in their most venomous form. Where conventional terms used to describe the sound of black metal are ‘cold’, ‘grim’, and ‘bleak’, Abigor, on this record, deviates from this norm more than ever, instead opting to create an album which is better described as fiery, infernal, and dissonant. The result of this combination of styles is the band’s masterwork of deathened black metal, a record brimming with Abigor’s usual grand-scale compositions, emotive catharses, medieval evocation, and glorious counterpoint riffing.
I want to look at how the mixture of black and death metal on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan, and the general otherworldly atmosphere created on the record, results in Abigor, with furious and breakneck intensity, pushing their music to an extraordinary place, what I have called an alien medieval world. This reading of the record is partly informed by Abigor’s aesthetic decision to use one of the three Meisterstiche (master-engravings) by the great German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer as the album’s artwork, namely, The Knight, the Devil, and Death (1513).
Abigor’s comparably bewildering sixth full-length album is a fantastic aural accompaniment to Dürer’s incredible engraving. Dürer’s surreal picture of medieval phantasmagoria complements perfectly the surreal sonic experimentation on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan. A prime example of Abigor’s well-known experimental tendencies comes at the very start of the album, in the song ‘Dawn of Human Dust’.
An odd electronic whirring and swishing sound is what the listener hears at the beginning of this diabolical metal record – Abigor does not fire straight into the main instrumentation. Instead, they choose to start with this whirring noise, followed by what sounds like a drawbridge opening, punctuated by a slashing electronic sound and a repetitive metallic banging, recalling the sound of beating drums heard during a medieval battle. At 0:24, the noisy soundscape falls away and is replaced by a dark string section likely played on keyboard (the only actual section of this kind on the record). Then comes the re-emergence of the swishing sound, sounding like an infernal spirit whirling through space, accompanied by the rhythmic banging. What sounds like a sword being drawn from its sheath slashes across the soundscape, and the odd swishing sound quickly morphs into a high-pitched shrieking. At this point, the odd spaceship/medieval castle soundscape is bulldozed away by the aforementioned groovy introductory riff (0:43), and with this, Abigor’s sixth and best LP officially begins.
On this record, Abigor paints a truly diabolical hellscape that acts as an aurally ekphrastic companion piece to Dürer’s engraving. Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is a dark, Dionysian album from start to finish, with a wild, celebratory pride running through it. Abigor seems to delight in the crazed character of their music, where no riff is too diabolical nor bizarre to be able to fit and make some kind of sense in the inexorable, vertiginous ride of the album. Bestial music matches bestial artwork and vice versa.
However, looking at Albrecht Dürer’s timeless work of art as an evil scene contradicts one primary interpretation of the engraving: that it represents the virtuousness of Christian morality in a wicked, fallen world.
Dürer’s knight, held by his horse above Death and the Devil, symbolises the light of Christianity during the long so-called Dark Ages. He is a ‘soldier in the service of God, traversing the rough path of life on earth’, resisting the temptations of the Devil, and defying ever-present Death in his journey through a treacherous life, pressing onward towards salvation in the afterlife.
However, Abigor’s decision to use this particular Dürer engraving inverts this interpretation.
Now, bathed in the sinful green of the album artwork, the trio are in league with one another. The pride so clearly etched onto the face of the Knight now smacks of an evil sort of pride, rather than a look of resoluteness. Now the Devil and Death look up to this Knight on horseback in the middle of the engraving, who is recast as some sort of ring leader, with a Roman general-like pomposity to his presence. This listener’s imagination sees the three as combined in orchestrating the chaos of the sonic world created by Abgior, harnessing the power of their medieval mob to serve their wicked triumvirate will. Pulled on puppet-strings in Abigor’s control, the trio on the album artwork are intertwined in channeling the quintessence of satan, which is to channel the spirit of Lucifer’s rebellious disobedience of God.
Each song on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is like a mini epic journey, and the album as a whole is experienced like a free-fall trip through successive hellish dimensions. It is a sonically alien record due to its heavy sci-fi leanings, creating a memorable extraterrestrial impression through the repeated use of noisy, psychedelic electronic sections from start to finish (six out of eight songs start with these soundscapes). But it is also alien (by which I mean unfamiliar and disturbing) in terms of the sound of the guitars. The guitar tones on this record are, in a word, crazed, even by black metal standards. What is initially a cryptic and genuinely off-putting dual-guitar sound gradually becomes clearer, fresher, and more lush with each listen of the record. However, the cryptic sound of the guitar tones retains their piercing and drill-like qualities even once you can better decipher the riffs and notes being played, only through repeated close listening to the record.
‘Equilibrium Pass By’ is the song on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan that best encapsulates the album. On this third track, Abigor showcases all the tricks they implement throughout the LP, particularly the spontaneous spacey noise sections and the combination of black metal and death metal riffs, culminating in a truly imaginative and incendiary composition.
‘Equilibrium Pass By’ opens with a brief and eerie soundscape (0:00-0:11) before blasting off into the breakneck hurtle of the song’s first section. ‘Obtained is now this crystal throne / That once upon a time unfolded before my inner eye’ chants vocalist Thurisaz, as T.T. blasts furiously alongside the contorted twin-guitar tremolo riff. The composition then suddenly darts from the frenetic opening section into a slightly up-tempo, dual-guitar riff characteristic of Abigor’s medieval-inspired sound (0:28-1:00), consisting of two guitar parts playing a lilting, melancholic minor key melody that they counterpoint in an ascending/descending phrasing (it feels apt at this point to please ask for reader sympathy regarding my near-total lack of music theory). In the same sudden stop/start manner in which this riff was introduced into the composition, so also begins the one after it.
At the climactic point of the lilting melody (1:00), the music abruptly stops for about a beat, only to shoot back out into space after a single hit of the snare drum, and with a new riff that creates an entirely new direction for the composition to unfold along. Instances like these, spontaneous and compositionally adventurous twists and turns, make Channeling the Quintessence of Satan a very re-listenable record. As usual, Abigor produce a curious and unpredictable collection of songs, showing little regard whatsoever for adhering to conventional song structure, with their compositions sprawling and developing in whichever direction they wish. Abigor’s songs do have a tendency to veer into riff-salad territory, something they are known for being guilty of. However, especially on Channeling the Quintessence of Satan, they always tow the line, meaning that the music is still as bombastic and maximalist as usual, but is successfully dialled down a level in terms of their penchant for sheer randomness, thereby retaining an underlying attitude of: we do not care one jot if you don’t like it, these are the songs exactly as we want them to be.
The pair of lilting, monophonic riffs between 1:22-2:05 evoke solemn European folk music of the medieval period (a reference for this type of music is found at the end of the article). In harking back to a bygone age now so distant, Abigor channels and reinterprets medieval music into the infernal modern context of Channeling the Quintessence of Satan. This is one of the great stylistic features of Abigor’s music overall. All one has to imagine is pretty much any monophonic riff from any of their albums being played on a lute or a recorder by some angsty, heretical troubadour in the 12th Century, and the band’s artistic connection with the past feels legitimate.
At 2:09, the song’s first movement fades out and is replaced by the second space soundscape. An eerie melody consisting of two notes shoots out like a beam of light to fill the space left by the sudden withdrawal of Abigor’s musical barrage, which seemed to be in full flight before being suddenly truncated. An unnerving, syncopated melody played on the keyboard is added to the first melody, and the combined sensation of the two parts is a buoyancy as though one is aimlessly floating through space.
This brief and liminal interlude ends as quickly and abruptly as it began, and is replaced by the next movement of the song as we find ourselves in yet another new hellish context. This section, from 2:27-3:07, follows the same pattern that the song’s structure has adopted thus far; of abstract soundscapes and the main instrumentation constantly trading places and vying for space in this deconstructivist world of musical smoke and mirrors.
The inspired section from 3:18-5:10 ranks among the top moments of music written by Abigor. Emerging out of a brief soundscape, Abigor drops us into a swung mid-tempo section containing one of the most emotive and introspective riffs on the album (3:18-3:44). Using one of my personal favourite subtle yet enormously effective compositional tricks, Abigor then plays this same riff again (3:46-4:12), but instead of a mid-tempo arpeggiated swing, it is played at breakneck tremolo tempo, in what is truly some of the fastest black metal known to man, providing an even stronger sense of catharsis than what was felt during the initial playthrough of this emotive and awe-inspiring riff. In true death metal fashion, this incredibly fast section comes staggering to an abrupt halt, only to give way to what is the most N.Y.D.M slam I have ever heard in black metal (please get in touch if you know a section quite like it, and which isn’t 4:39-5:56 in ‘The Spirit of Venus’ from Supreme Immortal Art). This section (4:12-4:41) is absolutely bludgeoning, and is executed in true death metal compositional style, in that the drop to this slam comes directly after a section of immense speed and contortion. So, it is fair to suggest that P.K. and T.T. had been spinning that death metal good good in order to produce a section of this kind, one which could fit nicely in the classic 90s material by Suffocation, Gorguts, or Immolation. This slam riff and the section before it shows, one after the other, Abigor’s finest breakneck black metal, and then one of the most devastating death metal slams that you are likely to ever hear in black metal. It is exactly this seamless blending of both black metal and death metal that I wanted to highlight with this essay, and this section of ‘Equilibrium Pass By’ absolutely typifies my argument that Channeling the Quintessence of Satan is Abigor’s definitive statement of what deathend black metal might sound like. Whether this was their intention or not, this album is the blueprint left by them, and it is a stunning, complex, and visionary work of art.
1. Bartrum, Giulia, Albrecht Dürer and His Legacy: The Graphic Work of a Renaissance Artist (London: The British Musuem Press, 2002), p.187.
P.K. And T.T. Were defo spinning that DM good good