It’s been eight years since the last Absu studio album…can you explain what’s been happening during this prolonged hiatus?

Proscriptor: “There were many innuendoes pointing in my direction that ABSU was beginning to crumble and it all originated in late 2001. As a matter of fact, my relationship was getting so deficient that I quit the band for four months and during that period, I auditioned for Slayer. When I returned, Equitant left in April 2002, but we decided to carry on as trio because before his departure. Equitant converted to bass as we had another guitarist in the band: Kashshapxu. As we were beginning the compositions and arrangements for the self-titled album, a minor tragedy struck. In June 2002, I was in an accident and shattered the bones in my left wrist. A couple of orthopedic surgeons were not optimistic about my ability to ever play drums again, so this had me a bit concerned. Once this occurred, the songwriting completely stopped and the motivation to continue amongst both guitarists had vanished. Luckily with a few custom made casts and rehabilitation, I was back to playing drums and ironically speaking, playing better than I did before I snapped my wrist. After the healing process, I immediately flew to The Netherlands then Sweden to rehearse/record with Melechesh for two months for the recording of their third album Sphynx. Upon my return to Dallas in early January 2003, I was informed by Shaftiel he no longer wanted to continue working with ABSU, so it was all down to me. I had decided it was a decent time to go on hiatus as we all had been working diligently for over 12 years. So, I took a four year pause from ABSU and pursued parenthood, two Equimanthorn albums, a Starchaser Network album, (both projects with Equitant) I was in a short-lived band called The Turning (which was an immense mistake), performed one festival with Melechesh and exalted my label Tarot Productions with nine releases to date. I also started my own mastering/post production studio to assist other bands with their releases before their final product went off to manufacturing. Now, the tale of the reformation: in the Spring of 2007, I contacted guitarist/songwriter Aethyris McKay about possibly resurrecting ABSU since both Shaftiel and Equitant had no interest in continuing the band. He mentioned he knew of a lead guitarist that would be an ideal replacement for Shaftiel named Vastator. Vastator only lasted six months (May-November 2007) in the band and left due to musical differences. He contributed four songs for the new album, as I was gratified for his services. The day after his departure, Aethyris and I recruited long time comrade Zawicizuz of Infernal Oak/Rape Pillage & Burn fame to replace Vastator and let me tell you, it’s been a prosperous working environment ever since. A few months ago, we also hired bassist/co-vocalist Ezezu from the Texas-based band Panzram to fulfill, yet complete the line-up of ABSU once and for all. So, here we are with a new line-up, new album and new vision for future times to come. The songs on the new album consist of, more or less, “leftovers” from the prior and current guitarists of ABSU. Half of the tracks were composed by current guitarists Aethyris and Zawicizuz, while the other half were written by Shaftiel and Vastator, which I thought created a good blend of diversity throughout the entire album."

Read the interview here