Aborym
Kali-Yuga Bizarre

There are bands that only reach that artistic maturity that distinguishes them from other artists by their second or third album. Other groups, on the other hand, leave an indelible mark on the history of music right from the start. The Italian band Aborym fully fits into this category.

It was 1999. After the demo "Worshipping Damned Souls" (1993) and several lineup changes, Aborym birthed Kali Yuga Bizarre. Following the early experiments by the Norwegian band Mysticum, the Roman group overturned all the rules of “conventional” Black Metal by mixing it with experimental music or electronic genres like industrial, techno, ambient, and EBM, creating something unique—a perfect and annihilating fusion that spits in the face of all the “true” crowd, perpetually anchored to the glorious old school, and above all stamps an important seal on extreme Italian metal and beyond.

The mastermind behind the creature Aborym is Fabban, who plays bass and synth, with Sethlans and Nysrok on guitars, two excellent guitarists, Yorga S.M. on vocals, and of course the high-speed drum machine. This album also features some guests, which I'll talk about later. The cover is beautiful! It shows the completely destroyed Colosseum and the overturned statue of Octavian, all in an asphyxiating halo, a matte blue on which the band's logo and album title stand out. An apocalyptic, post-nuclear scenario that makes you reflect, makes your mind wander as if all this were an imminent future. The booklet is truly unique: alongside the depictions of the band members, we find inscriptions and transcriptions, almost a collage of images sometimes contrasting with each other, sometimes cohesive in what is the magical, industrial, elitist, and convulsive universe of the demon Aborym.

The first track “Wermacht Kali Ma” kicks off, a furious Black-Thrash Metal cutting stroke adorned with icy and spectral synths; Yorga's vocals are not very distinctive but are perfect on this album. The second track “Horrenda Peccata Christi” goes even harder. It starts off paced, then becomes ferocious but also melodic. The electronic interlude is sensational, a true trip followed by the guitar fury of Nysrok and Sethlans breaking the previously created climax with electronics and taking us straight back down to hell. Notable in these two tracks are the apt citations of Emilio Praga’s Prelude, sung (or recited) remarkably by Yorga. Here we are at the third track “Hellraiser,” a cover by the English Coil, featuring the great Attila Csihar (De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas ring a bell?). His performance is indescribable! His catacombal voice is chilling in this song of pure Electro-Dark Ambient, where funereal synths and keyboards dominate and estrange the listener, almost taking them to an abandoned cemetery in the darkness of night. Outstanding.

Follows what in my opinion is the best track on this album, the sensational “Roma Divina Urbs,” an Epic-Black Metal poem of nine minutes celebrating the splendors of the eternal city and the empire that once was. The intro is very beautiful, but especially the riffs accompanied by trumpets that chase each other during the song. The verses travel fast but paced, and the beautiful choral refrain is truly evocative. A stunning finale with a long quote from Petronius’s Satyricon, “The whole world is about to fall to pieces… among the shadows of the Styx…”.

Next is Darka Mysteria, also with Attila Csihar on vocals. His performance is immense. A violent but melodic song, pure Death-Black whose riffs laid on the solid drum machine/synth base create a really nice composition. Here we come to “Tantra Bizarre,” a stunning unusual episode of Acid-Techno filled with electric loops and robotic voices. A real brain hit. “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” sung by Volgar from Deviate Ladies is an apocalyptic propaganda manifesto that to the eyes of the more superficial labels Aborym as Nazis. A group that has always proven to be apolitical and uninterested in the political and religious fanaticisms of this world. Therefore, totally unfounded accusations.

The penultimate track, “Metal Striken Terror Action” is a remake of “The Black Deicide” (which appeared on the demo Worshipping Damned Soul). Pure infernal Black-Thrash with a truly particular finale. The guitar textures are very beautiful; they don’t simply sit above the synths but are cohesive and inseparable. Kali Yuga Bizarre concludes with “The First Four Trumpets” sung once again by Attila Csihar. A truly particular song, almost an experiment, perfectly closing the explosive debut of Fabban and his associates. For me, a landmark album, inhuman, mad, sick, apocalyptic, but above all eternal, among the best not only in Italy and Europe but worldwide. The first album of a band that dared to experiment and put themselves on the line, head held high against everything and everyone.

"We are the children of the Ailing Fathers, Eagles at the time of changing feathers, We flutter silent, astonished and hungry over the agony of a god…
Do not mock brother if I weep for the past… I sing the intoxication... of azure baths and the ideal that drowns in the mud.."