Aborym were originally formed in Taranto, Apulia, Italy, in 1993 by Malfeitor Fabban, then bassist in Funeral Oration and keyboardist for Memory Lab. The band started out as a covers band, playing the likes of Sepultura, Rotting Christ and Sodom, amongst others. Along with Alex Noia (guitars) and Mental Siege (drums), Fabban recorded the first Aborym demo, the five-track Worshipping Damned Souls, in 1993. The band split up shortly afterwards, with Fabban pursuing his other project, Funeral Oration. Fabban however reformed the band in 1997 in Rome, with a new line-up containing Yorga SM on vocals and David Totaro on guitars, who recorded Aborym's second demo (Antichristian Nuclear Sabbath) that same year. In 1999, the band struck a deal with the Italian Scarlet Records to release their first full-length album, Kali Yuga Bizarre. The album featured guest vocals from Attila Csihar, well known in the black metal scene for his work with Mayhem, Tormentor and Plasma Pool, who was to join the band full-time following the departure of Yorga SM. Around the same time, the band added a second guitarist, Nysrok Infernalien Sathanas, of the band Satanikk Terrorists. The album was well-received, with the caveat that was to become their trademark: one has to be open-minded when listening to it.
In 2001 Aborym released their second album, Fire Walk with Us!, with Csihar fulfilling vocal duties and the band including a cover of Norwegian group Burzum's "Det Som En Gang Var". The album was extremely well received; Terrorizer awarded it album of the month with a maximum score of 10/10, commenting, "Most black-heads will hate it, others will be curiously offended by it, and a fearless few will call it their own and use it as their very lifeblood. You can almost see the majority snicker at Aborym's psychedelic time-travel-meets-corpse-paint image, but these visuals serve to underline specifically where band and record belong: the outer reaches of the cosmos." The album also made Terrorizer's Albums of the Year for 2001, at position 39. Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic highlighted the potentially divisive nature of the record, stating: "Is it any good? Well, it really comes down to how the listener positions himself along the digital divide. Those who prefer their metal stripped down and straightforward will likely find Aborym too industrial and chaotic. Yet for fans of truly unique new directions in metal, Fire Walk With Us is a full-course meal."
2003 saw Aborym release With No Human Intervention through Code666 in Europe and Mercenary Musik in the United States. The album continued to expand on the band's experimentation with electronica, with Aborym citing influences from drum and bass, jungle, techno, classical, EBM and industrial. The album featured guest appearances contributions from Bard Eithun, Roger Rasmussen, Matt Jarman (of Void), Mick Kenney and Richard Szabo (of Timewave Zero).
In 2006, Aborym signed with a bigger label in the form of Season of Mist to release their fourth record, Generator. The band underwent further line-up changes, with Csihar leaving after seven years to return to Mayhem, and Totaro moving to Sweden to join the reformed Dissection, and later Watain. Csihar was replaced by Preben "Prime Evil" Mulvik, previously of Mysticum and Amok, and for the first time the band employed a human drummer in the form of Bard G. Eithun, ex-drummer with Emperor and then of Blood Tsunami. Chad Bowar of About.com praised the album's atmospheric elements and the vocals of Mulvik, noting also that Csihar returns to appear on one track ("Man Bites God"). He also commented that whilst the synths had a tendency to make the album sound melodramatic and sterile, the addition of a live drummer helps to alleviate this. In July 2007, Nysrok Infernalien Sathanas, Aborym's long-term guitarist, left the band, stating that his "approach to our way of working, living and thinking" was out of sync with the rest of the band. Mulvik also departed to band to concentrate on other priorities in his life.
In 2010 Aborym became a trio: Fabban, Eithun and new guitarist Paolo Pieri (stage name Hell:IO:Kabbalus). Recording the fifth album commenced on February 20 at Fear No One studios in Montefiascone, Italy, under the supervision of sound engineer Emiliano Natali. The band announced that the album would consist of a single track, which they described as "a harsh sonic monolith of sickness and depravity". The album featured sound consulting by Marc Urselli Shrarer at Eastside Sound Studios, New York. As usual, the album was announced to be featuring a number of guest appearances, in this case Narchost (of Fabban's other band, Malfeitor), and Richard Szabo (of Timewave Zero), amongst others yet to be revealed. In August 2010, Aborym announced that the title of the fifth album was to be Psychgrotesque and was to be released on November 8 in Europe (November 23 in the USA).
Across The Universe
Aborym Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I had a dream which was not at all a dream
I was lifted up on a rarefied atmosphere
Darkness stole my certainties across the uni
Now I see... the pain all falls behind
Our nightmares are in our sights
Now I see... behold the disgrace of our lives
In space, a vengeful fleet waited
Then the furred strangers arrived with a plan to save Earth's children
But the General wasn't sure if he could trust an Alien offer
Millions of lights we have never seen
I approach this in a state of trance
Hyperfast unreal journey across the uni
Sucking hallucinatory acid in the system
Now I see a red light from the satellite
Little gods are trying to escape by flying away
A star is only glitters when it shatters in the night
Their capsules are burning swallowed by the dark
The lyrics to Aborym's song "Across the Universe" describe a sense of confusion, meaninglessness, and uncertainty. The opening lines "Anything and everything is meaningless" express a feeling of nihilism, or the belief that life lacks any inherent meaning or purpose. The next line, "I had a dream which was not at all a dream," may be a reference to the opening lines of a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan," in which he describes a vision that comes to him in a dreamlike state. In Aborym's song, this vision seems to be of being lifted up into space, into a rarefied atmosphere.
The next line, "Darkness stole my certainties across the uni" suggests a loss of certainty or confidence in oneself, perhaps as a result of being confronted with the vastness and unknowns of the universe. The chorus of the song seems to suggest a glimmer of hope, with the line "Now I see... the pain all falls behind" indicating a moving on from past trauma or difficulties. However, the next line, "behold the disgrace of our lives" suggests that there is still much that is not right in the world.
The later verses of the song introduce the theme of aliens or extraterrestrial life, with the lines "In space, a vengeful fleet waited / Then the furred strangers arrived with a plan to save Earth's children / But the General wasn't sure if he could trust an Alien offer." These lines suggest a complex relationship between humanity and its potential extraterrestrial counterparts, with a sense of suspicion and distrust on the part of some humans.
Line by Line Meaning
Anything and everything is meaningless
Life lacks any inherent purpose or value
I had a dream which was not at all a dream
Experiencing something beyond reality
I was lifted up on a rarefied atmosphere
Feeling elevated or disconnected from reality
Darkness stole my certainties across the uni
Feeling uncertain and lost in the vast unknown of the universe
Now I see... the pain all falls behind
Overcoming emotional pain and leaving it in the past
Our nightmares are in our sights
Facing fears and confronting the things that disturb us
Now I see... behold the disgrace of our lives
Recognizing the shameful aspects of our existence
In space, a vengeful fleet waited
An ominous presence looming in the darkness of the cosmos
Then the furred strangers arrived with a plan to save Earth's children
Alien intervention to assist humanity's survival
But the General wasn't sure if he could trust an Alien offer
Questioning the motives and intentions of outsiders
Millions of lights we have never seen
Discovering new wonders in the vast expanse of space
I approach this in a state of trance
Entering a hypnotic state to explore the unknown
Hyperfast unreal journey across the uni
An unreal and rapid journey across the universe
Sucking hallucinatory acid in the system
Taking psychedelic drugs to enhance the cosmic experience
Now I see a red light from the satellite
Encountering something unknown or threatening in space
Little gods are trying to escape by flying away
Insinuating humanity's superior view of itself
A star is only glitters when it shatters in the night
The beauty of something is often only fully realized after its loss
Their capsules are burning swallowed by the dark
The eventual destruction and loss of all things
Contributed by Grayson M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.