Fractal Possession

Fractal Possession sees the return of Abigor after their hiatus through the mid 2000s had ended. What formed out of Abigor's reformation was something different from what was released earlier. The futuristic themes touched on in Satanized are given primacy on Fractal Possession. The sound is an unusual combination of black metal tremolos, multilayered guitars, odd time signatures that frequently shift, mechanical clean production, and a strong industrial undertone. This is a futuristic and dystopian Abigor for the new age.

Music-wise, Fractal Possession goes for a much more unconventional sound than was heard on Abigor's music during their first run. Some things haven't changed at all that much, tremolos and blast beats are abundant, and the lyrics still feature heavy amounts of blasphemy and satanic praise. What has changed is in the formula for songwriting, each song has a discernible main riff that serves as the driving force, with dynamics added to give a deeper look into the cold, robotic atmosphere of this album. These dynamics often include extremely technical and machine-like solos and softer parts consisting of sparse industrial effects that really drive home the dystopian feeling given off by the angular and ever shifting riff patterns that spike and pulse to create some of the most odd and engaging riffs heard. Fractal Possession is certainly an interesting metamorphosis for Abigor.

The odd catchiness of Fractal Possession is one of its most interesting qualities. It blends a harshly clean and robotic atmosphere with riffs that drill into your memory and do their best to stand out despite their excess technicality. Some of the catchiest songs include numbers such as 3D Blasphemy, The Fire Syndrome, and Lair of Infinite Desperation do to the sleek blend of technical black metal riffs, strong buildup riffs, and icy technological effects. When the effects kick in, you get a sound that almost transports you to a surreal, dead, mechanical hellscape which jogs the imagination and allows the listener to get lost in the music. They describe a biomechanical antichrist, possession by injection, and computerized prisons for the souls of the damned. This is the kind of music that I would love to see the mythos behind it. The fact that you can understand what these guys are shrieking about makes it all the more intriguing. Fractal Possession really knows how to leave an impression and stick.

I can easily recommend this to people who are interested. For people into black metal, industrial metal or harsher prog, this is something you will probably enjoy a lot. Every song sticks with you and is brimming with dystopian futuristic atmosphere. The riffs and rhythms will stay with you and stand out in a combination of catchiness and technicality rarely seen in music. Abigor have created a masterpiece for those of us with a sense of rhythm who aren't afraid of the dark. Give this album a big, strong, full listen. I highly encourage you.

Could one ever truly look upon a genocide or mass killing and see beauty in it? To eat a rotting orange and call it sweet, convincing everyone that said fruit is the most delicious morsel one has ever consumed whilst the maggots in the orange's putrid core writhe in one's mouth?

To truly appreciate the majesty of Abigor's "Fractal Possession", one must transcend the borders of subjectivity and instead allow oneself to be submerged entirely in the hypnotic trance of Abigor's all-out assault. To try find any solace within this album is to curse oneself from the start, for no trace of solace, respite or peace lays within the fifty two minutes and forty four seconds of aural terror presented.

Between industrial interludes, Abigor creates a framework for what could have been solid black or death metal. I speak of the furious drumming used throughout: the insanely paced blasts, bombastic fills and mesmerizing double bass work. T.T.'s musical genius is sewn through to the very foundations of this music, and the refreshingly innovative percussion enforces this fact. That said, the percussion lays eerily close to the listener, far closer in the mix than any other aspect of the music despite the fact it is not the loudest part of the mix. The effect created by the ever-near pounding of the plastic drum skins and crashing of metal cymbals invokes an ominous foreboding fear within the mind of the listener that refuses to vacate it's temporary abode until the record is switched off and placed back in it's sleeve.

Utilising a thick bass to bridge the void between Abigor's experimental industrial black chaos and the realm of "normal" black metal (which in itself seems like a refreshing breather in comparison; Abigor are to Mayhem what Genocide Organ are to Kiss, or what Nyogthaeblisz are to The Who). A heavy, treble-less pounding slithers alongside the percussion, never poking its head so high as to be immediately spotted, but always sufficiently present to pose a threat.

The guitars are perhaps the true spectacle to behold. Their first appearance manifests itself as a simultaneously horrific and breathtakingly beautiful harmonization to an irregular time signature after the introduction. Blasts sound; guitars blaze, their hideously deformed sweeps and inconceivable tremolo trills fighting from ear to ear. This technical mastery is contrasted by use of punk sections, simplistic drumming and strange effects upon the ears. It is this stark contrast of basic emotion which allows Abigor to embed themselves into the listener's mind and elevate themselves on an artistic plateau high above even the likes of Shining and Alcest. The best example of this is perhaps on the introduction to '3D Blasphemy', whose intro is an upbeat march with a pseudo-circus feel which quickly devolves into shrill tremolo picked minor chords and blast beats. Likewise, 'Liberty Rises Like A Diagonal Flame' begins with annoyingly pleasant major harmonizations, soon to be destroyed by the catchy solid bulk of the verse, whose disharmonic patterns flow into rhythmic double bass sections (only to breakdown once again into a keyboard orientated interlude).

The industrial tendencies of the trio peer through the fissures at times too. Always used with subtlety or tact (and sometimes both), the occasional addition of sci-fi keyboards or samples and mixing is (or should be) welcomed with open arms, serving as the only thing close to normality that this record offers. Be it the occasional loss of the guitar sound to a flangey, vibrato wail, the melodic soloing of the keyboards over an otherwise disgusting creation of vile riffage or the appropriately placed distorted synthesizers to create inhuman screams, the keyboards are never overdone.

Finally, the vocals on this album are also pleasing beyond belief. The tortured, anguished rasps of A.R. that linger throughout the musical corridors of this album continue to haunt the listener long after the music has been disengaged. The clear annunciation also allows a (perhaps unhealthy) insight into the band's viewpoint, conveying Satanic lyrical prophecies, meta-scientific conjurings and deathly evocations. Occasionally a clean voice is heard, welcomed by the now-tender ear drums, but it is soon dead, yet another mirage created by this trio that disappears once approached.

Listen with caution.

This album was released under the eager pressure of a strict fanbase, after a wait of six years, which means that the hardcore fans of Abigor would want to love it, but they would burn it to the ground if it had any flaws, because in the case of Abigor, flaws are not accepted. So, as everyone was anxious to witness the comeback of a high quality band with a straightforward sound and a manly use of keys, that had it's own dominance during the nineties and holds respect to this day, they punch everyone in the face with an experimental new approach. They played with fire and one can't say they won, because of the usual kultster whining, but this actually an ingenious album.

The guys probably noticed that technology can be used in favor of music and they added the element of the computer a lot to this album. Every melody is curt and accurate, carefully placed to compose a fresh new sound of sableness, when at first, every guiding lines in the composition process are erased. The songs do not follow the structure or the pattern of their early albums, and for sure the don't sound the same at all. The chaotic synth black metal characteristic of theirs is no more, and machine sounds have been added in the interludes, as well as the general production of the album, which makes every instrument sound crystal clear. A work like this resembles how fusing industrial/electronic parts to your music when you have a pure metal past actually works out and Morbid Angel should have taken a lesson before committing a crime in 2011. "Fractal Possession" feels like a bunch of ideas glued together into one nonlinear, yet consistent result that will be a little uncomfortable for purists to listen, if they do at all, because all of these unidentified noises that come and go. That's what makes a great band and if I was fond of Abigor for their early amazing era, I now salute them for having the ability and the guts to release this.

Apart from the typical black metal vocals, there are various spoken word/announcing deep cleans here and there, as well as backing screams and they are performed by a new person named AR. His services are diverse and not completely succesful, as I do dig the screams / growls but not all clean ones fit the rest of the mechanized madness. TT has returned to the drum post and his effort here is remarkable, with all kinds of fill in and blast beat lines, the sound of his hit is legit, while a bit louder at some parts. I particularly don't like the few moments that contain just the drums with a sample or vocals along, but it's not that important. The guitar parts are quite different from what you might remember, since the riffs remind more of a new age peri-apocalyptic situation, as if the cyborgs have finally conquered and destroyed planet Earth. They're not particularly catchy, but they are were written and accompanied with various robotic samples. The bass lines are enjoyable to the extent that I could understand, because they are way in the background, like an infrasound silently building an atonal groove. I really enjoyed all the electronic elements (samples, sounds etc...) despite the fact that I had my suspicions before listening to it, bands usually fuck up in this territory.

It is an album targeted to more adventurous listeners and the signs of modernity are all over it. There is a high possibility that the old-school fans will loathe every last bit of it, but there are a lot of avant-garde fans that are into innovative music, especially when it comes with an attitude. I can't label this as a masterpiece because of it's minor imperfections, but it is one of the most interesting pieces of modern black metal I have heard so far. The option to get frustrated and annoyed by this nonsense or to get excited and amazed are two black and white nearby squares, so I think this is a love-it-or-hate-it record. You have been warned.

Originally written for:
http://arsoncafe.blogspot.gr/

Wow. I usually prefer old-fashioned black metal in the vein of Darkthrone, but -this- simply blew me away. I bought "Fractal Possessions" about one year ago, and I have to say that I didn't like it very much at first. It took me a while to realize how great it is, because it's really something different, but if you're open-minded, you should really give it a chance.

The first thing you will notice is the sound. It is clear, powerful, and EVERYTHING is audible - in other words: perfect. Not typical for black metal, but in this case a bad production would take the power from the songs. The songs themselves are much more complicated compared to their earlier efforts and don't create a medieval atmosphere like for example on "Orkblut", but more a cold, hostile sound that could be directly from outer space. They are full of small details which keep this record interesting even after many listens.

There are tons of sick riffs, cool bass lines, odd time signatures, complex song structures, weird sound effects and the drumming of TT is, as usual, very good in every sense. The vocals are pretty varied and more low-pitched like Deathspell Omega for example, which is something that could annoy people but it doesn't bother me personally. Although the songs are very different compared to the bands older material you will still find many parts or riffs that that remind of their older stuff. "The Fire Syndrome" for example begins with a riff that sounds like "Spill the Blood of the Lamb" from Judas Iscariot (maybe an inspiration?). This song also features some interesting electronic elements; the most effective is probably at the break at 4:44 where you can hear an obscure sound followed by an inhuman scream and another nice riff. The riffing of "Injection Satan" also comes quite close to their older material. "Cold Void Choir" is one of my favourites and a song that will stick in your head once you hear it. It contains most of the things that make this album good and is one of the more memorable songs, so check it out for a first impression (it can be found on the band's Myspace site).

All in all this is one of the strongest modern black metal albums I've ever heard, and the only thing preventing me from giving this album 100 percent is the last song, which in my opinion is not as good as the others, and some (only very few) parts of others songs that don't offer the same quality as the rest. But they are all on a constantly high level making it difficult to pick out any favourites.

The last thing I want to mention is the cover artwork. If you know the earlier efforts of this band you will soon recognize a certain similarity to the artwork of the album "Nachthymnen". It perfectly shows the progression of the band and fits to the name.


Favourite tracks: Cold Void Choir, Project: Shadow, The Fire Syndrome, Liberty Rises A Diagonal Flame

Honestly, I was very much prejudiced against this album. I had heard much negative comment about it, and it is not atypical of a once-great band to fall very low. I thought this was going to suck. And guess what, it sucked... but it sucked much more than I expected it to do. I didn't even look forward to anything of value in this album, and it still managed to disappoint me. To give a rough idea about how much this album sucks, this is another one of those cases in which a former legend goes "avant-garde," but it is at the lowest level of the lowest even among those. Emperor hardly went down at all compared to Abigor. In fact, this is not even Abigor, and nor is it black metal. I would rather listen to Deathspell Omega preaching about submission to Satan than listen to this utter abomination.

This is so horrible on every level. Most of the riffs are inspired by modern technical death metal. You know, the pointless chugging and stop-starts interrupted by short lead guitar wanks. There is one difference between these riffs and modern tech death riffs, and it is not that these riffs are more black-metal sounding or anything like that... the only difference is that these riffs are less technical. And I am not using the tech death comparison as an exaggeration for derisive effect; this album literally resembles tech death more than it does black metal, at least clearly so in the riff department. A former black metal legend ripping off modern technical death metal bullshit, and failing miserably, as if one could actually do anything successful with ripping off tech death... what a scene to behold! These riffs actually make Necrophagist riffs sound like works of genius.

Thankfully (not really), there are some other riffs, tremolo-picked, somewhat reminiscent of true Abigor. Somewhat, that's the important word. While these riffs aren't downright offensive like the tech death riffs, these are just plainly bad. It seems like Abigor went through the leftover riffs from the early days and intentionally chose the worst riffs through scientific examination, just to show that Abigoresque riffs can actually suck. I doubt they actually wrote these riffs as new riffs, being too obsessed with the tech death fad, and they probably just threw these leftovers in to make the music more random. To call these riffs generic would be an insult to myriads of generic black metal bands. But in the end, these riffs at least somewhat remotely resemble true Abigor riffs, so how bad could they be? These are tolerable indeed, though nothing more, and are actually the highest point of this album (yes, what would have been the lowest point of the album had it been on Nachthymnen, let alone Orkblut, is actually the highest point of this album). Unfortunately, this false Abigor has decided that it would cover this one actually tolerable point of the album by layering these riffs with the tech death riffs, industrial samplings, and horrible vocals.

The vocals are actually one of the higher points of this album (not because they are any good, but because everything else is so low), but are still sub-par. I won't even think about comparing this new vocalist to Silenius, since it would be too harsh and I must actually thank this guy for doing vocals that resemble something black-metal, rather than doing guttural vocals (which would have fitted nicely with the tech death riffs, resulting in a combination of abominations). But they are still as annoying as black metal vocals can get (with the exception of something like Silencer, of course). Even then, the vocals could have been tolerable, but on this release the simple virtue of remaining tolerable is just too much to ask for the musicians. As if he needed to out-suck the horrible guitar riffs, the vocalist decides to do some clean singing and quasi-robotic vocals - which are absolutely obnoxious. I don't think those are inherently bad, but in this case he manages to use these techniques terribly and use them at the worst possible moments, as if trying to make the music more random. And if that was really the goal, well, he does succeed. Too bad the only thing he, or this album in general, succeeds at is failing.

The same can be said about electronic/industrial samplings. Not only are they irritating in themselves, but they are also used in the worst possible moment, like to cover a good, no, not a good riff, but at least a riff that is half step above complete failure - which the rest of the album is.

And there are some leads, too - which sound like they are lifted directly from a sub-par tech death album. From melody to guitar tone, the leads perfectly resemble tech death leads. And of course, as you would have guessed, they come in at terribly random moments.

It is not hard to infer from all these pointless randomness that the song structures are not going to make any sense at all. And the inference is correct. It just amazes me that a band so adept at writing progressive songs that are epic in nature with each riff morphing into another had to resort to randomness of disjointed parts overlapping each other and going nowhere. Then again, a band so good at writing memorable and unique black metal riffs had to resort to imitating tech death riffs, so... oh wait, that¡¯s the same band.

To further the tech death comparison, the production is very clean and very annoying. It is a shame that the bass drum is not clicky, because that would have fitted so perfectly with everything else. Actually, not having clicky bass drums is probably the only thing on the album that they didn't completely fuck up (but this is not to be confused as a "redeeming point," because this doesn't redeem anything at all). The drums here basically do nothing, especially with the production that buries the drums a bit and emphasizes the annoying guitar riffs. It is the type of drumming that is good on a good release (actually, it would be mediocre even on a good release) and bad on a bad release - and absolutely repulsive on an absolutely repulsive release. Guess what that makes it.

Fractal Possession is one of the lowest points of black metal (let's assume it is even black metal, for the sake of the argument) - no, not one of the lowest points, but the absolute nadir, to which it claims its exclusive residency - reached by none other than one of the greatest black metal bands. There is no redeeming point whatsoever - if you have a decent or good taste in metal, listen to the true Abigor albums; if you like technicality, go listen to tech death bands, because this sucks even more than tech death, and is not as technical anyway. The only excuse for listening to this album is to find out just how big a gap of quality can be between two different works of a single band. Metallica? Cryptopsy? Fractal Possession is worthy of all the scorn given to St. Anger and The Unspoken King combined. This makes what former thrash legends are doing these days pale in comparison. Much like Exodus is fucking up their reputation with groove bullshit, Abigor is fucking its own with tech death, but only in a much more horrible way, setting a whole new standard for failure, previously unimagined by metalheads. Now that Exodus is going to desecrate its classic Bonded By Blood by re-recording it with groove laid upon it, one can only hope that Abigor doesn't re-record Orkblut with tech death riffs.

After break of six years Abigor finally released new album and I think it was worth of waiting. Probably many people will not like Fractal Possession, because it's so experimental and weird, but I think this is more or less a logical continuation of their previous album. I am a big fan of the old school black metal and I don't like the most of the modern stuff, but I simply can not deny the brilliance of this album. You should be just a little open minded to understand that this is how they think black metal of today should sound.

When I played Fractal Possession for the first time I was very nervous while the intro was going, because Abigor was always one of my favorite bands and I feared that they will not fill up my expectations, but when first song begun the fear was gone. With every next riff the music was becoming more and more exciting and insane. When first two minutes passed I was thinking that 99% of the today's black metal bands should split up, because almost everything sounds miserable in comparison to this and that feeling lasted for the entire album. I can not describe how much I was excited while I was listening to this. There is no other band that can be compared with this; everything is so original, fresh and new. Fractal Possession will surely become a classic in years to come. Songs are very complex and technical, but everything is perfectly arranged. There are so many different parts in every song, but nothing sounds out of place. I noticed that with every next listen I hear some things that I did not hear before. The new vocalist did excellent job too. His vocals are very diverse and varied. In some moments he reminds me to Attila Csihar from Mayhem. The reason why I didn't give this album a perfect rating is because some parts are not that memorable, but just a few parts here and there.

I hope Fractal Possession will influence other people, because so many things can be learned from this. One is that you can not make good music unless you sacrifice a lot of your time and put a lot of effort in what you are doing. It's clear that these people dedicated their lives to this art. With this album Abigor placed themselves on the throne of the black metal scene, beside bands as Deathspell Omega, Enthroned, Marduk, Watain and maybe just few others.

My favorite songs: Project: Shadow, Lair Of Infinite Desperation, Injection Satan...

The reformed Abigor have returned with an album that drags their music kicking and screaming into the age of technology. “Fractal Possession” is a very challenging album and the band have decided to push the boundaries of their music further. I suppose many old fans are likely to be disappointed but I see this more as an updated version of Abigor with new ingredients thrown in. The difference to the old days is that “Fractal Possession” is more technical, more difficult to get into and more ambitious than anything they’ve done before. The band have completely forsaken the medieval feeling, which often was present during the old days. “Fractal Possession” presents a modern, sterile and surgically precise Abigor, a band that is still clearly out to kill but has chosen to use new methods in order to attain their goal. They’ve turned themselves into a Cybigor.

The biggest change in the sound is due to the fact that the band have, for the first time in their career, opted to use another studio than the good old Hörnix. The very sterile production fits the modern sounding material very well. Abigor hasn’t gone as far as to become an industrial black metal band, but there are touches of this genre too in the music, which might be labelled as electronic black metal. “Fractal Possession” has a lot in common with stuff like new Dødheimsgard, Blacklodge and Aborym. Among the new influences there are still old Abigor trademarks left, such as the blastbeats (which occasionally are faster than ever before, I might add) and certain melodic riffs typical for this band.

The music is, as said, very complex with lots of abrupt rhythm changes and breaks in the songs. The way the songs are structured make them sound like they consist of a bunch of different parts thrown together. I can perfectly well understand those who complain the music is too disjointed. Sometimes I even feel physically exhausted after having listened to this album all the way through. The riffing is often of a choppy start-stop-start kind, which I found annoying at first but after I’ve got into this album properly I’m OK with these song structures. Many songs contain some additional samples and effects in order to further stir the soup. None of the songs are catchy or “easy listening music”, “Fractal Possession” is a true “love it or hate it” album. You either get it or you don’t.

One very positive aspect is the drumming. TT is back behind the drums and his performance is great. His frantic blastbeats and tight fills show that he is the only right drummer for Abigor. On vocals we have AR, a new acquaintance. His black metal vocals are pretty standard but he also uses both clean and narrative vocals. The clean vocals in songs like “Cold Void Choir” and “Vapourized Tears” sound like the ones Dødheimsgard have used and they also remind me of Garm’s clean vocals due to their somewhat theatrical character. I am not always satisfied with the vocals on this album, as some of the changes of mood don’t work that well. What I dislike most are the theatrical clean vocals because I don’t think they fit the music. However, at the same time it is also difficult for me to suggest exactly what kind of vocals should have been used, since the music is as unique as it is. Let’s just say that the vocals leave me a bit cold as a whole.

A little more about some of the songs then: “Project Shadow” is the first proper track and it immediately puts you on a rollercoaster ride with blast beats, some very odd technical melodic riffs, disjointed arrangements and electronic effects. When I first listened to this track I wasn’t able to make almost any sense of it but it’s actually more logical than it seems at first. “The Fire Syndrome” has a guitar melody in the beginning that reminds me a lot of old Abigor and with less avant-garde arrangements this song would come relatively close to the band’s “Supreme Immortal Art” days. “Injection Satan” probably comes closest to old Abigor stuff overall, especially when it comes to the guitar work. In this song they’ve put a filter sweep effect, which I think is a bit annoying yet some people seem to like it. Another standout track along with “Project Shadow”, “Lair of Infinite Desperation” and “Injection Satan” is without a doubt “Liberty Raises a Diagonal Flame”. It contains some excellent Abigor trademark high-pitched guitar melodies that really raise the feeling and make the song very intense.

“Fractal Possession” is a bold move, proving that the band certainly didn’t try to relive old glories by making a comeback. Instead they created something new. It took a long time but in the end “Fractal Possession” won me over, even if the vocals don’t always satisfy me.

Okay, this album is incredibly electronic. Don't get me wrong, I love the electronic/black metal combination - but it's not done well at all.

The first track "Warning" - is a meaningless intro filled with radio voice over effects and cheesy electronics.

The second track, Project Shadow, begins with a digital, technical, uninspired death metal guitar riff of complete wank. This then delves into the base of the song - there's only one word that sums this up - uninspired. I honestly believe some bands have the ability to conjure up apathetic, cold and industrialized black metal (example; Dominion III - ironically a side project of a former member of Abigor) - but this is not that. In some ways it reminds me of "Grand Declaration of War" by Mayhem. That irritating, accessible "post-black-metal" that makes listeners feel like they're listening to avant garde that's super intelligent and awesome and different - with enough audible, authoritative vocal lines to sound "angry". That is probably the most frustrating thing about this album - the musicians, although capable, sound as though they are trying to be random, crazy, "all over the place". When done well, this creates an interesting audio-journey for the listener - on this album, it's just annoying.

Just to clarify, I don't think songs have to be catchy, or "logical" to sound "good". Structure doesn't always make a song well written, and easy listening doesn't always insinuate cleverness on the musician’s part. There's a bit of a misconception these days, that all over the place, weird bits and general contrived wank = avant garde = talent, which is not the case.

Although unavoidable, I think it's often unfair to compare a bands recent album to their earlier work - it's only natural that the people behind the music change through time, and therefore their musical output changes. While I was thinking about points to raise in this review, the progression of Blut Aus Nord came to mind. Although they haven't nearly released as many albums as Abigor - there is a similarity. Both bands started out as melodic, epic and impressive melodic black metal outfits - and today release electronic influenced, cold black metal. The difference is however, Blut Aus Nord do it well.

I was honestly hoping that there would be some redeeming feature within the album, perhaps hidden in one of the songs - but alas, this is not the case. The intro to "Cold Void Choir" is somewhat okay - thus the 10%.

If you enjoy technicality over emotion, originality, and expression - you may enjoy this album. Though I don't think even the most die-hard fans of the new age of digital death metal would get into this. A very disappointing effort.