ABSU Interview

Ten years and five studio albums is the brief description of Absu's career. Absu are now taking a break, and even though there was high demand by fans to create another album, they were unaware of the members of Absu spanning their horizons. These horizons will delay any Absu reunion for awhile as Absu frontman Proscriptor tells us in his chat with TheGauntlet. The band is on hiatus, and in their meantime they are giving fan something for the background music of their unholy sacrifices which covers tracks unknown to the majority of Absu fans. Proscriptor talked with TheGauntlet about these topics and all that is Absu, the one and only "Mythological Occult Metal".

The Gauntlet: When did you guys decide to do a collection of the past 10 years of Absu?

Proscriptor: Well the reason why we did the collection is because haven't released a studio album since 2001. We are on hiatus right now and this guy in states, peter tucker, started an online petition for fans and followers of Absu to sign to get us to sign for a new studio album that is impossible at this point in time to make. So we decided to do a collection of live tracks, demo material, unreleased songs and rarities from the five studio albums. Equitant and I went through the audio archives of the past 10 years of stuff that wasn't put on past releases, I remastered while Equitant picked out the tracks. We are giving the fans a collection of unreleased Absu so it's not really a new Absu album.

The Gauntlet: Who is Peter Tucker?

Proscriptor: He's based out of Kansas city, a couple of hundred people signed it was handed to me and then it was handed to Osmose Prodcutions, with them not knowing there wasn't going to be another studio album.

The Gauntlet: Is there an Absu album that was begun?

Proscriptor: Well actually, there is another proposed album in store, it will be a self titled album. There are four songs written total and thirteen lyrical patterns composed and arranged, the three of us want to take a break though and pursue other projects and bands at this time.

Equitant and I have two projects, Star Chasing Productions, Equitant has a prosperous solo career, and I have a project under my pseudonym, Equitant also drums for Demonic Christ, and I'm in another band called Heavens Devils with 70's rock influence, it's more atmospheric.

The Gauntlet: What label will your projects be released on?

Proscriptor: My own production company, Tarot productions.com will be handling the releases and I will be releasing the majority of the material from the aforementioned bands on that as well, excluding Demonic Christ, that will be released on Blackmetal .com.

The Gauntlet: Has any of your side work been released yet?

Proscriptor: Dana Duffy has two albums released on Blackmetal.com, all the other projects are in composition and arrangements right now so there is nothing is audible at this point in 2006.

The Gauntlet: Did you guys dub yourselves Mythological Occult Metal?

Proscriptor: We gave ourselves that own category, even though we are connected to black metal, death metal, thrash and general heavy music, our theme is the most important aspect and it's the theme we project behind out music and lyrics, mythology and the occult as well as our ancestral contributions which are Scottish, Irish, and German mostly and other themes of black magic. We didn't want to be tied down to on genre so we decided to specialize ourselves and throw around our own moniker.


The Gauntlet: Are there any other Mythological Occult Metal bands around that you know of?

Proscriptor: I've never heard of another band. With Mythological occult metal, I think it is something I feel that we have influenced other bands over the years, but there aren't any bands that play under that name not to my knowledge

The Gauntlet: What would you say you're other projects sound like? I'm guessing it's something completely different from Absu.

Proscriptor: Oh, yeah more or less, no all the current projects really have nothing to do with Absu really, maybe under Equitant's new project, which is ambient and atmospheric. A lot of the lyrical themes are affiliated and associated with Absu. What we are currently doing sounds nothing like anything we've done previously.

The Gauntlet: Was it hard selecting exactly what you guys wanted to be on the collection?

Proscriptor: We went through about 85% of all the audio archives and pretty much chose 85% of what was left besides what was on the 5 studio albums, and there is a lot of live material that and audio it just wasn't up to standards

The Gauntlet: What are some of the sites for the many projects?

Proscriptor: Starchasernetwork.com, heavensdevils.com, demonicchrist.com, equimanthorn.com, proscriptorm.com

The Gauntlet: What is the meaning behind Proscriptor?

Proscriptor: It's actually Latin based, to proscribe, and in ancient times it meant to announce the names of the dead in a requiem, so I added my own suffix to that word and became the signature, and also it is that because I was the chief lyricist it was the best pseudonym but Equitant did help with the lyrics as well.

Equitant means one who rides horse back and Chapthu is the lord of all shadows in the netherworld.

The Gauntlet: What are some of your most enjoyed mythological authors that have inspired you lyrically?

Proscriptor: I'm a big fan of Alster Crowley, Kenneth Grant, Farraaer, Jean Marquis, Francis Barrett, and Robert Nanic. And also books the arts of black magic and metaphysics.

The Gauntlet: Did you study these books in school or for personal knowledge?

Proscriptor: I do have three college degrees, but they are all in music, I also took a lot of philosophy classes but none of them pertained to any of my degrees.

The Gauntlet: So Absu is not entirely together but not broken up, is there a full length in the conceivable future that could occur?

Proscriptor: Well we're still formed; we are still on vacation, if there. If there was to be a new studio album, it could be next year, it could also be in 07', it's unpredictable at this point because of the vast projects. I can't limit myself to one band; I want to explore other forms of music for awhile.


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Tags:  Absu  , Proscriptor, interviews

Dave Huffy    November 04, 2005