Facta Loquuntur

An absurd thing about Absurd is a fact, that this band is a one of the first black metal artists of Germany, but its early music was quite firmly rooted in punk rock. That's why it was so great. "Facta Loquuntur" is the debut full-length album of the band. It was forced to be made out of recorded in different time material, because Absurd's members were in jail during the process of working under the opus.

"Facta Loquuntur" is raw and crooked, but that's exactly how it must look like, because, for Satan's sake, it's black metal! And punk rock! The members of Absurd were very young at the early stages of the band. The material was very simple back in those times, on all demos and the EP "Thuringian Pagan Madness". The same can be said about "Facta Loquuntur", which actually contains "Thuringian Pagan Madness" as well.

The music of "Facta Loquuntur" is very punkish. The most (black) metal feature of the album is in its boosted level of aggression and in the vocals, which are quite often screamed in addition to the clean punkish singing. The compositions are majorly short and primitive, with the characteristic punkish riffing and rhythm section. Often the melodies are triumphant. This feature is underlined by the screamed vocals, which sound especially spectacular when they are barked in German language. The mid-tempo prevails on the album and it's a one of the main reasons for the music to be so catchy.

Sometimes there're some more intense moments, which sound like a full-loaded black metal. On the other side, "Facta Loquuntur" has deep and lyrical compositions. After all, there's "Dreaming of Love" on the album, an exceptional example of a blackened punk love song. Moreover, "Mourning Soul", which is probably the main hit of the album, sounds like traditional punk rock with a gloomy mood.

So, "Facta Loquuntur" is a stellar album. It can destroy someone's expectations, if those are too firm, because the work sounds very punkish for black metal classics. It can sound not very holistic for obvious reasons. However, the music of the album is so damn catchy, that it should impress regardless of expectations. Absurd will re-record a lot of the material from this album in a metalized form and with the different lineup, but the 90s Absurd has its advantages over the 2000s one. "Facta Loquuntur" should be listed among the best releases of Absurd.

Absurd is one of the most infamous black metal bands of all time. Any metal fan who indulges in the extreme side of the metal genre knows this. The band is widely credited for being the founders of the infamous NSBM subgenre and also ended up going to prison for murdering one of their schoolmates when they were in high school. Because of this, many people in the metal scene seem to flock to this album due to its controversial history. While I see no issue with listening to an album like this out of morbid curiosity, I do have a problem with people proclaiming that this is a great album, because, quite frankly, this album is complete trash.

On their later material, Absurd play in a pagan black metal style that is fairly typical of the genre, but on Facta Loquuntur, the band play what sounds like punk with a bit of black metal influence making it somewhat perplexing that people call this a black metal album. It doesn’t really matter though because, whether this is black metal or not, the album is still awful. Firstly, the music on Facta Loquuntur is extremely unfocused and random. On songs like “Werwolf” and “The Gates of Heaven” the tempo is slow and the riffs have kind of a head banging feel to them, but on other songs like “Wartend in Einsamkeit” and “Deep Dark Forest” are extremely slow and are driven by clean singing. While this might sound like there is variation on the album, no matter what style the band are playing in, they are horrible at it. The head banging songs are stale and don’t go anywhere and the slower songs fail to build any sort of atmosphere and end up just being boring. The most black metal song on the album, “First Winter of Blood Red Snow” contains some fast, hardcore style drumming, but the main riff and vocals are so awful that it sounds more like a parody of black metal than anything else (think Morbid Anal Fog).

As one might guess, the performances on Facta Loquuntur are pretty bad overall. The guitars are sloppy and the drumming is extremely simplistic. On top of that the band used a drum machine on some of the songs, but, due to the production, most listeners likely won’t be able to tell the difference. Speaking of production, the sound quality on Facta Loquuntur has a tendency to change drastically from song to song because of the fact that they were all recorded at different times. On top of this, the production has a lot of distortion and sounds very demo-like which is why I think that people refer to this as a black metal release. If there was one thing to praise about the album, it’s that the song “Mourning Soul” is actually pretty good. The riffs on this track are catchy and the vocals are also decently executed. Because of this, it is worth noting that the song was re-recorded for the album Der fünfzehnjährige Krieg and sounds much better on that release. Aside from that, the lyrics on Facta Loquuntur are also pretty well written, but, because this is an album, they are not much of a plus when the music is so poorly done.

In the end, Facta Loquuntur is a pretty bad album. As another reviewer on here stated, without the controversy, this album and, by extension, this band, would have likely have been forgotten. If you unironically like this, then more power to you, but personally, I can see little to no musical value in this release and, while the historical context is somewhat interesting, I would not recommend that people listen to it. If you are a black metal fan looking to get into this band, I would advise that you check out their later releases like Blutgericht and Der fünfzehnjährige Krieg, but if you are hell-bent on wasting 36 minutes of your life, don’t let me stop you.

If these guys weren’t Nazis and hadn't murdered Sandro Beyer, this album would be more than likely and more than deservedly forgotten. There, I said it. Facta Loquuntur represents a nadir in black metal, a true bottom on terms of absent talent, slothfulness, and just embarrassing content both musically and lyrically. It's such a badly produced and ineptly played record that it would be borderline humorous if it wasn't so unforgivably boring. And the only reasons I can think of this becoming a "classic" in some people's minds is either due to the "so bad it's good" phenomenon (which FYI, this isn't, it's just boring), or due to the fact that they may just be praising this because they are the same kind of sad neo-Nazis that Absurd are and want to support their fellow lovers of servitude and oppression. And even on the terms of viewing it as just another black metal album, this thing is so underwhelming that it just does not stack up against any of its competition in black metal at the time, even against some of the bands that were just releasing demos.

I mean, to call this album amateurish would be an understatement, because I think there are black metal demos out there that were better prepared, better rehearsed, and even better produced than this. The only atmosphere comes from the static-loaded, ear-stinging production. Even through that, you can tell that these guys are not skilled musicians in the slightest with some of the simplest, most sluggish, and most boring guitar riffs ever conceived sliding all throughout this album. Think of an ass-quality version of Burzum's self-titled with none of the feeling and none of the atmospheric ambitions. Hell, even when they try to rock hard and get heads banging on their faster, punkier songs they can't do that since everything is so simple, blunted, boring, and amateurish. Playing out-of-tune, playing off-time, vocals that just sound like moaning or passionless yelling, static substituted for guitars, a buried beat, janky force-less riffs, it's all there, making for a thoroughly embarrassing album.

And it's not enough that this album is badly played and badly produced, but it's also just extremely awkward in its ideas. The notion behind "Dreaming of Love" is probably one of the most laughable I've ever come across. It's a mushy love song sung in growls with some funny bass notes and lethargic lead guitars that end up being so "absurd" I can hardly hold back my laughter. I mean, black metal Nazis making gushy love songs? It's just so stupid. And that's nothing to say of other blunders on this album like "Wartend in Eisamkeit" and "The Gates of Heaven" which are totally clean sung in a boring, moaning monotone. The former is also the longest song on the album and feels like it takes an eternity to slog through. And there's even the few times the guitarist decides to take a crack at soloing, and he fails miserably, resulting in some of the shortest, least in-time, and least confident guitar solos ever heard. And not to mention the lyrics which just read like a laughable cobbling together of every hokey black metal stereotype about devils and forests and winter with no passion behind them. All these little features aside, the rest of the album is just boring and stilted beyond belief without any staying power or real interest to any of it with a level of ineptitude and staleness that frankly puts me to sleep.

Absurd's Facta Loquuntur is one of those albums where the balance between boring and embarrassing is perfectly struck. Between terrible production from three different studios, inept playing, flat and boring songwriting, comedic moaned clean singing, riffs with no drive, and mood-less atmospheres, there's nothing to look forward to when listening to such an album. It's a mess through and through, and with music this slapshod and limp, it's beyond difficult to see how this is regarded as a classic by some. Politics aside, this is just a horrible and lazy black metal album with no real "oomph" behind it, played as if nobody in the band cared. Though Absurd being Nazis is reason enough to hate them, I think the music does just as good a job of proving their worthlessness.

Finally, after all of these shitty demos that sound like nothing more than crappy German television shows, Absurd has released some real black metal. Facta Loquunter marks Absurd's transformation from a shitty garage band to "The Tyrant of German Black Metal".

While incredibly raw, Facta Loquunter is quite a few steps up from the demos. It is actually raw and aggressive beyond belief, but you can actually here everything that is going on, which is a great contrast against the demos. The music is the same music that was written and recorded in those demos, but it is finally in a form that allows it to be appreciated by the listener. Songs like "Eternal Winter" are of a style similar to that pioneered by the original Norwegian black metal bands. Other songs, such as the way too short "Mourning Soul" are simple punk style songs. "Eternal Winter" even has a taste of punk to it. "Wartend In Einsamkeit" is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard, comparable to Black Sabbath's "Solitude". It evokes a true feeling of solitude, but not in the rather wimpy way heard in most depressive-suicidal black metal. The song does drag on a bit, but despite its overwhelming simplicity, it is one of the greatest songs to be written by Absurd. Certain songs here really do not have much in common with most black metal. "The Gates of Heaven" is the best example of this. Most of the album, however, is definitely black metal, but with NWOBHM, folk, and punk influences. "Deep Dark Forest", as the title suggests, has a very black metal like atmosphere and sound, but it features a great amount of influence from punk.That said, the closest thing to "Norwegian Circle" black metal here is "Eternal Winter".

The technicality here is actually not all that great. None of the members of Absurd are exceptional musicians, but they sure can write good music. The feeling here is still that of a basement band, but it sounds a lot better production wise. Still, the overall feeling of the "basement" sound is quite nice. There are quite a few solos here, but most of them sound like the playing of a ten year old. They still are quite powerful, for some reason, they come in handy especially with "Wartend In Einsamkeit". The drumming is not great either. The infamous Hendrik Möbus is behind the drums here. Most of his parts are pretty simple, but sometimes, that is good for making the music seem more ominous. The bass playing really stands out to me. Sometimes, it is soft sounding, but in a few instances, it gets really heavy, almost in a Lemmy Kilmister like way. The vocals on Facta Loquunter kick ass. Dark Mark Doom provides the vocals. His style ranges from punk style clean vocals to almost Quorthon like screams, heard in theiir most intense on the extremely aggressive "First Winter of Bloodred Snow", a song which actually starts as a relatively mellow piece, but it quickly becomes something reminiscent of Under the Sign of the Black Mark era Bathory.

While this may seem like a very odd note, I notice a heavy amount of Black Sabbath influence here. A lot of the album is very heavy and riff based, which reminds me a lot of early Black Sabbath. Some of the solos are even bluesy, like Iommi's playing is. It is quite odd to hear any bluesy playing on an NSBM record, or any black metal record, for that matter, but believe me, it is actually here. It adds a very interesting flavor to the black metal.

While the songs presented here can be heard on pretty much every Absurd release, I believe that the best way to hear them is from Facta Loquunter. The sound is raw, but it remains coherent. Before listening to this, I thought that a later record was their best, but now, I think that Facta Loquunter is their best. Every black metal fan should own Facta Loquunter.

What a peculiar black metal album. Filosofem this ain't but I do consider this a classic album among Lords of Chaos mentionables; notoriety or not. For all its amateurishness and sometimes cheesiness, there is something original and admirable about Facta Loquuntur that makes me come back to it every time.

Absurd are probably the best known NSBM outfit but this record also sounds very German too; offering a unique insight into remnant historical traces of World War II found from that country in both the album's flaws and strengths. And so there is also something "true" about it; none of this Panzer Division Marduk crap.

Questionable musicianship abound: when it comes to metal soloing, the guitarist on this album makes Mantas seem like a neo-classical shredder in comparison. It is well known that Absurd bring a garage rock/punk aesthetic and marry it to a black metal sound but the placement of solos in a couple of the awesome songs should have been left out because they are laughably bad. And yet, I still like this album.

Most of this material was written during the height of the second wave black metal movement but this sounds nothing like what was coming out of Norway in those days although songs Pesttanz and Eternal Winter do have some noticeable Darkthrone dissonance going on.

Werwolf is the first song and pry the most punkish being that it's so catchy and basic in its simplicity of riffs and beats. It's probably the best example of a song that describes what Absurd do with their black metal sound. Absurd like to drift about between styles some. Werwolf is more Oi!/RAC based with the black metal-ness coming in the way of Nocturno Culto-like vocals but then The Gates of Heaven rolls out a folk/Viking hymn harmony with clean chanting. You'll notice the drum beats don't differ much between the two songs. Gates sounds slower but the pace is not all that different between the two when you break it down.

Eternal Winter is the best track on Facta Loquuntur. It starts with a riff that is as frozen as Thüringen snow. The atmosphere is cold and hateful and the pace of the song revs up and pulls away like a Tiger I tank. This song is not to be topped from the rest of the album. It’s even got a bouncy bass drive throughout the song and the tinny drum slashes are quite memorable. It’s funny because, this album likes to stagger its ferocity. Deep Dark Forest has a title that you would think is another typical black metal song. Well it is in that the drumming and atmosphere are in tune to the style but this would qualify as a clean sung black metal track. The drum beats are monotonous and steady meddled over listless distortion and simple patterns. The lyrics in the song are of the Viking metal variety which Absurd faintly allude to. The album cover will indicate that. And then of course there is the following song of First Winter of Blood Red Snow; a song that next to Der Sieg Ist Unser is the most straight forward and all out black metal track. But even this one is still pretty loopy. I’m not sure if I like it or not because it sounds awful silly. Almost like a lampoon of something that could be on Deathcrush but with Atilla on vocals and a bad one at that.

Mourning Soul continues the pattern of dirty-clean alternating with this one pretty short and anthemic but dark. I think this is a good song that fits in with the rawness of the album even though at first it doesn’t seem like it should. It’s one of those examples of a very German spirit of the band that I mentioned above.

“Your soul is calling me. I see the full moon high above” is the first half of a lyric that is sung as awesomely black metal but once the other half “I am closing my eyes. I am dreaming of your love” sounded out, I couldn’t help but cringe. That’s what this goofy song is called: Dreaming of Your Love. This is one of the album’s moments of unintentional hilarity. Bad, bad, bad song but it still had the potential to be good which is strange but true and I also mentioned earlier about some of the atrocious guitar solos found and when I heard the one played here, I burst out laughing. The one on this song sounds like something a surf rock band would play. Same goes for the bass line: badly out of place.

I think for some of these songs the band should have just sang more of them in German. For English is a highly colorful language with many nuances and idiomatic tendencies that doesn’t lend itself well to the more abstract culture sensitive ideas that something in German could convey. That might have been the case for the lyrics in Dreaming of Your Love because that song came across to sound like a case of a love crush by a kvlt kiddie in English. But my point of the English lyrics on the record that I am making is more directed to the song Wartend In Einsamkeit. Yep, the title is in German (as well as some ending lyrics) but it mostly is in English. Ok, now, Absurd for better or for worse, was at this time at least, well known as a National Socialist band and since such an ideology is known for white supremacy, a lyric such as “The same black blood does run in our veins” comes across as hilariously ironical. Yeah, yeah, I get the gist of what that is supposed to mean i.e. black as in ‘black metal’ or black as in ‘bleak and evil’ but in English, that comes off as a comical gaffe given the known history of Absurd. In German, I am sure the exact transcription would have been contextually accurate. It also bears noting that the line “Black blood running through my veins. We knew what we did was unacceptable” is also a lyric in The Gates of Heaven. Miscegenation? Hmm. Again, my point is that these English lyrics are definitely a source of amusement in some places. Musically, Wartend In Einsamkeit doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a sorrowful piece reliant on a monotonous, militaristic marching drum beat and it has another horrible guitar solo. But these lyrical and musicianship flaws can still be attributed to the band’s inexperience and youth.

Absurd is still around but in name only. Facta Loquuntur was an album I had to have when I heard some of Werwolf. It sounded like a great song but when I heard it all, it wasn’t to be the best because there are a couple others on this album that are much better. Eternal Winter is a black metal favorite of mine. The rest of it is pretty scatter shot but I still do think this is a good album to check out if you want to hear something different from the genre. I held my expectations high and the record did not meet them but I still came away very satisfied. That’s how aberrant this Absurd release is.

There are many bands in which people appreciate them as such, but Absurd has to be at the upper part of this balance. Fans will point out honesty of compositions, while others will be fustrated and say: IT’S NOT METAL, IT’S PUNK LOL. Half of them will probably mention the band’s national-socialist stance. As for me, as you can see the rating (it’s relative, works in context though) – I really like this release.

What’s great about this album? Well, let’s do a little context here and here. In the middle 90’s, most black metal bands were already adding other gimmicks, like pretty much half of an orchestra and excellent musicianship (aka wankery) to seem original or whatever, and to detract fans from their horrible compositional talent. Bands were also becoming more and more politically correct, many of them being blinded by materialism. What about Absurd? They murdered Sandro Beyer, a collegue, they’re “nazis” (which would result that they are bad for your average Dimmu Borgir/LoG metalhead) and their musicianship is subpar. The drummer plays in countertime, the guitarist makes about 3 riffs per song using pretty much powerchords, and when the bass when present, is pretty much lousy. Also, the album sounds sloppy. And it would be better not to talk about the production (I can hear everything, but then again not everyone is that “trained”).
But Absurd have the compositions which makes them different from the virtuoso black-prog whatever bands. It transcends both oi! Punk and black metal, and its atmosphere is great. This album manages to bring up heroic ideals from their own youthful perspective.
That same youth is also present at their lyrics (just look at songittles), and it’s clear they wanted to appear as honest as possible.

Forgot to mention the vocals: They’re great, clean voice chants which try to sound folkish and more aggressive black metal vocals (hybrid between typical black metal vocals and hardcore shouting, with a great german accent).

It’s clear this band isn’t for everyone. If you enjoy metal, hardcore, oi! and others, you’ll love this, but if you’re a Dream Theater/Opeth fan, you’ll probably hate it and you would do better to look at some Yngwie guitar wankery.

This is one of my most commonly listened albums. Many people out there take Absurd's old material as a joke, but they clearly don't understand its merit. This is seriously raw black metal/punk, and not only that, it has a great deal of substance.

The guitar sound has a dull analog tone with harsh scratchy distortion. Often the chords are struck so hard other strings ring out and create off-key noises. The musicianship here is amateur for sure, but this only adds to its excellent simplicity. You can expect little more than power chords and other simple formations. Either simple up and down or all down-stroked, and overallvery punky stroking patterns are used. The solos are entirely basic, and with only one guitar, the bass maintains the rhythm behind a buzzing and crunching harsh higher array of sounds. Most often the solos consist of a very easy set of single notes. The bass is dull and dead sounding, almost always audible and plunking with punky lines in the background. Occasionally the bass takes more interesting roles playing an alternate melody to the guitar's rhtyhm. The drums are almost always mid-paced using alternating patterns of single kick and snare, often using hard crashes, and always sounding very flat. Rather than using d-beat style drums, it is more like the funky patterns used in Belketre's "The Dark Promise". The vocals are great, no doubt about it. They are either harsh yells and screams or clean vocals with a particularly bad singing voice that really grows on you. The overall structure of the songs is either punkish with black metal overtones or more drawn out, depressive and dull.

This album has been a favourite of mine for a long time. Although its description may sound like punk deemed black metal for its production with unserious musicians, it is most certainly more than that. For all those idiot skeptics and internet bashers, fuck off.

I had some troubles digging this album when I listened to it in the first times yet I gradually started to enjoy it. This album, while being generally mid-paced to slow with occasional speed burps (Der Sieg ist Unser, notably.) sounds extremely sloppy, notably in drumming, but also guitar and bass-wise. The vocals alternate between cool clean chants --which are one of my favorite things to be found in this album-- and more Black Metal-like raspy, disturbing vocals.

Most of the guitar work found in this album is really basic and detuned yet it may show an heroic feeling. Most songs have only 2 or 3 riffs which are generally made of power-chords and some occasional scales. Production-wise this album is poor, most of the production is too bright, fuzzy and noisy that makes the riffs' shape totally audible but doesn't show their complete force though it perodically changes song-to-song to a more distant, echoed, controled sound which makes Facta Loquuntur seem to be a compilation rathern than an actual album. Drumbeats present in this album are basic, repetitive, out of time and slowed down punk rythms. It shows the musicians were obviously not properly trained, yet they managed to record a half-way decent album. After hearing this album a few times you can easily notice Absurd wasn't trying to sound Black Metal, sure it's mostly Metal, and it has notable Black and Folk Metal elements making this album an interesting (but not so pleasant to some) Oi! Punk/Black Metal combination. Most lyrics in this album are far from NS (except Werwolf.) Being great part of the time about melancholy, anti-christianism, hate, among other related things which I think it would please the anti-NS crowd. This album was released in the post-Norwegian Black Metal period (1996, to be exact.) And it shows very little influence of it.

Why did I give this album 76? Its production is piss-poor yet listeneable and its musicianship is sub-standart, indeed. But Facta Loquuntur song-writing isn't an average Oi! punk songwriting and obviously not an average Black Metal song-writing, and like I previously said, it manages to capture some Heroic and Pagan Aeons. It's better to listen to a poorly produced album with original songwriting and aesthethic than a "nice and neat" band that is mediocre and everything they play has been done before. This album isn't really appropiate to any particular public. NSBM and some Black Metal fans may like it, but as in, many others would not.

Absurd are more famous for strangling a potential band member with a phone cord than their musical output.... they prescribe(d) to the moronic "national socialist" ideology, and do not seem like a band I'd be fanatical about. Yet for some reason, Facta Lunqutuur is a compelling listen. It might be Absurd's total absence of musical ability or songwriting expertise... instead of intentionally trying to create atmosphere, the atmosphere seems to create itself.

There is atmosphere abound... songs like Deep Dark Forest and Gates of Heaven are brilliant in their simplicity... no keyboards, no aimless screeching. The vocals are about 60% sung, and this guy's voice is pretty weird. For some reason alot of the vocal lines have a creepy Adam's Family/transylvania vibe, something most black metal acts fail at getting down. Mourning Soul (my favorite song, coincidentally) actually reminds me of the MISFITS of all bands.

Three categories can be distinguished: upbeat attempts at traditional black metal: Der Sieg ist Under, First Winter of Bloodred Snow; mid paced, snarling BM: pesttanz, werewolf; and bizzare dirge like material that captures the "deep dark forest" vibe: deep dark forest, dreaming of love.

You can hear when their drummer fucks up, the guitar solos are pitiful, and the production is fuzzy... this is why Facta Luquuntur rules. Imagine a satanic garage band from the far north who have only owned their instruments for three months. Absurd is one of those bands i would not feel right in recommending... my only advice is to judge for yourself