ABRAHAM ANSWERS DUMB QUESTIONS

The Slovenly Swiss sludge slatterns better known as Abraham were brought to my attention courtesy their label boss, Robin Staps. You may recognise Robin’s name as he’s the driving engine behind The Ocean and, because he seems to think that the seven or eight hours of sleep he gets each month is a luxury, he also runs Pelagic Records, through which Abraham have just issued their second album, The Serpent, The Prophet and The Whore.

Abraham are a curious bunch; they create characters, stories and background tall tales with as much frequency and detail as they do bewildering post-metal sludge. Their world is definitely their own little world. Take a gander at some of the classic tidbits I pulled from the band’s bio:

“Born in 1866 BC, Abraham lived a peaceful life near the town of Sodome, NC. He married his half-sister who gave birth to some 14 kids while already aged far over a hundred years… those golden days are gone, but the virile power of Abraham’s beard survived and he was reborn in 2007 as a rock band near Lausanne, Switzerland.”

“Abraham’s second album The Prophet, The Serpent and The Whore was inspired by a novel by J.G. Rawls. In case you’re not familiar with this writer, well, shame on you! A bit of Wikipedia research will tell you that Rawls lived at the beginning of the 20th Century and died in an motel room somewhere on the East Coast. It is not exactly clear whether his works are authentic or not; they might have been written by college students trying to pull a prank. The title of his most well-known book is The Chronoception. Abraham found this book on a flea market and used it as an inspiration for their second album. The lyrics were freely adaptated from the story, not wanting the record to become a literary illustration of the book. The story of an unnamed man falling from the sky to crawl through this world’s lowest spheres; and the prevalent themes of falling from grace, primal fear, physical pain, loneliness and mystical visions resonated perfectly within Abraham’s continuous state of mind.”

With this in mind, I figured this band would be good sports in answering interview questions outside of the standard format. And, as you can see below, they were.

We chose the unlikely name of Abraham for our band because… of the mightiness of our beards. They grow like trees in the grove and expand their roots into dark grounds. They pump up the vast and empty soil, searching for vile food.

If I was trying to pull a girl in a bar and she asked me to describe my band, I’d tell her… that i create music to have nightmares. That is why she should take me to her bed so I can comfort her in the dark.

We named our new album The Serpent, The Prophet and The Whore because… it features several serpents, e.g. a horde of fiddlesnakes, several prophets, false and wicked, and whores that make your sex grow.

The theme of the new album is based on… a short story by american writer J.G. Rawls entitled The Chronoception. It’s about loss, fear, suffering, despair, drugs and mystical visions.

The most noticeable difference between this new album and [first album] An Eye on the Universe is… a much higher amount of serpents, prophets and whores. This made us write an album with a much darker atmosphere. It is also more personal, more homogeneous. We also experienced different writing techniques so as to come up with something original.

Our live show is….a unique experience, something that makes your underwear wet, your mouth dry and your balls bigger. It’s war with love for the guys in the audience, trying to mess up the stage with the power of our beards.

If there’s one thing I would change about Switzerland, it’d be… bring back weed smoking in public spaces, bars, trains, etc.

If, when the Romanian army invades and occupies Switzerland and for some Romanian reason, bans all excessive record collections, I could only save one record from my record collection it would be… Queen’s Greatest Hits.

Abraham’s The Serpent, The Prophet & The Whore is out now on Pelagic Records.

Go here for more info: www.pelagic-records.com