ABORYM: 'Psychogrotesque' Artwork Unveiled

Four years after the release of the critically acclaimed "Generator" album, Italian/Norwegian electro/post black metallers ABORYM are back with their fifth CD. Set for a November 8 European release (November 23 in the U.S.) via Season Of Mist, the new full-length is entitled "Psychogrotesque" and is composed of a single song written by the band's mastermind Malfeitor Fabban and talented new guitarist Hell:IO:Kabbalus.

Commented Fabban: "I realized the 'Psychogrotesque' artwork as I was inspired by the lyrics and the story that has been told in this album, trying to 'visualize' the sceneries and the mood of this all... On the cover there is the main character, his look is terrorized and lost... below, the place where he is annihilated, the place where this story takes place: a mental home, the world where we live. Inside the artwork, I wanted to add some 'easter eggs,' some tiny particulars with hidden messages... There are few of them scattered everywhere."

On "Psychogrotesque", the now-established three member line-up (Fabban on vocals, bass, synth; Hell:IO:Kabbalus on guitar and synths; Bård G. Eithun on drums) is joined by a number of special guests and friends: Richard K. Szabo of TWZ, an old acquaintance of ABORYM since the days of "With No Human Intervention"; Narchost (MALFEITOR, DEMON'S SHADE, STORMCROW); Pete Michael Kolstad Vegem (guitarist of BLOOD TSUNAMI and MONGO NINJA); Giulio Moschini (guitarist of HOUR OF PENANCE); bassist Emiliano Natali (SHOREBORN); and Davide Tiso (talented musician and the mind behind EPHEL DUATH and KARYN CRISIS BAND).

The most sensational and unprecedented collaboration on this record, and probably the most sensational in ABORYM's entire career since 1993, is with Karyn Crisis. A historical shamanic singer of the legendary combo metal-hardcore crossover CRISIS from New York, as well as pioneer of the female-fronted movement also involved in the past with SIX FEET UNDER, IGILLUM S, VOIVOD's vocalist and currently in the KARYN CRISIS BAND together with Davide Tiso, Karyn Crisis returns on the international extreme metal scene with ABORYM, through one of the most insane and violent performances of all time behind the microphone.

ABORYM describes the album as a "realistic story about the horrific human aridity and its fragile impotence. A social metaphor, uncomfortable but very current, treated cynically by bassist-singer Fabban through a story set in a mental hospital, which suggests that he used his pen with an absolute commitment and the determination to keep off ABORYM from the banality and clichés both ideological/aptitudinal and musical that saturate the extreme metal scene."

"Psychogrotesque" was recorded, mixed and mastered at Fear No One Studios by Emiliano Natali, with the sound consulting of Marc Urselli (founder of MEMORY LAB and sound engineer for artists like JOHN ZORN, LAURIE ANDERSON, LOU REED, ERIC CLAPTON) at the prestigious Eastside Sound Studios in New York.