Abduction: Reign In Black Blood
UK black metal band ABDUCTION have been on the ascendancy for a few years now with albums like A Crown Of Curses, All Pain As Penance and their collaboration album with Canadian black metallers NOCTURNAL PRAYER entitled Intercontinental Death Conspiracy, with all delivering atmospheric black metal executed with a razor sharp finesse. With their latest album Black Blood, their first on new label Candlelight Records, ABDUCTION have reached new heights with their music. We caught up with the man behind the black metal goodness, A/V, to find out all about it.
Black Blood is the sound of ABDUCTION hitting their stride and when asked if he is pleased with the response the record has had so far, A/V replies enthusiastically, “very pleased. It’s kind of gone from a big fish in a small pond scenario to being a small fish in a big pond scenario being on Candlelight, so I wasn’t sure how it was gonna go but it’s been very, very positive, just seeing the response around the world is incredible.”
With both the atmospheric and brutal element of their music very much present again, A/V spoke of the creation of Black Blood and how the sound of the album came together naturally. “I don’t really set out with any specific intentions as such, I just just start writing and then eventually the assembly of all the songs at the end is something I’m happy with. There’s no agenda for atmosphere or brutality or anything, just whatever needs to happen at the time.”
Black Blood is packed full of quality and well crafted songs. From the opening salvo of Kernos Crown to the truly epic eleven minute masterpiece Plutonian Gate and the closing In Exaltation Of The Supreme Being, the album shows the true power of ABDUCTION. One of the most interesting songs on the album though, is A Psylacybic Dream and A/V talked us through the song and the meaning behind it, something that is also prevalent throughout the duration of Black Blood. “There’s a theme throughout the whole record, which is particularly poignant on that song, which is around transformation ascending to a higher self. I was inspired by the Ancient Greek rituals called the Eleusinian Mysteries where they would drink lots of wine and take lots of psychedelic matter with the purpose of facing death, to no longer be afraid. There’s all these kind of stories that marry up with DMT visions and mushroom visions and LSD visions and things like that, so I just kind of tied all that together. I thought it’s a really interesting theme. The idea that song is literally the death part, the actual ritualistic death as part of the, the ceremony. There’s all sorts of metaphors for wine and metaphors for the universe and things in there. I like metaphors.”
A/V goes on to explain just how Black Blood works when it comes to their music, and while it is still very much a one man project for him, and always will be, there are elements of the live show where ABDUCTION perform as a full band that may creep into future recordings. “Black Blood was recorded with our drummer. Everything is me apart from the drums, so it has a band feel if you like, but I think the the songs in the writing needs to come from me. I don’t really see any reason to change that as such. It’d be nice to explore an actual live recording style, that would be nice and organic to try and explore at some point, but I think I think the actual product needs to come from me. I think the writing needs to come from me, it’s how it’s always been so far and those guys understand that. They’re my best friends.”
As Black Blood is the band’s first album on Candlelight Records, A/V explains how he came to be signed to Candlelight and how it is going, being on such a storied metal record label. “They’ve been fantastic. I have no complaints whatsoever. They are a legendary black metal label. They approached me through WINTERFYLLETH who are on the label. I had an album ready, so I was in a position to start approaching different labels. Candlelight came to me first and approached me and said, ‘have you got a new album?’ and that’s how it started. Candlelight Records put out the first EMPEROR releases and there’s some serious credibility to that name, so you take that offer very seriously.”
With the aforementioned EMPEROR and WINTERFYLLETH having been part of Candlelight as well as bands such as 1349, A/V feels excited that ABDUCTION are carrying on the black metal lineage for the label. “It’s pretty wild. I mean, I’m a quite, grounded, rational person but to be in the same conversations as bands that I grew up listening to is amazing. I fucking worshipped EMPEROR when I was a teenager and one of the first bands I played with, in one of my first bands, was 1349 in Nottingham. These are just conversations that I’d never really thought I’d have. I didn’t start ABDUCTION with any intention at all. It’s just naturally and organically grown. The logical next step is someone like someone like Candlelight, with that legacy and that history. I’m just really pleased because it’s just growing exactly how I think it should and I look back at my teenage self and he would be very happy.”
Black Blood is out now via Candlelight Records.
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