Terminus Abruptus by Stephen Roddy

"It's a quirky, odd, heavy electronic instrumental which sounds like it's pitched somewhere in between Adebisi Shank and something you might find on the soundtrack of Streets of Rage." - The Metaphorical Boat

Originally released as Overlord Part 1: The Rise of Terminus Abruptus under the moniker Line-in and later retitled to simply Terminus Abruptus

The album tells the fictional story of Terminus Abruptus' meteroric transformation from vocalist of a backwater Led Zeppelin covers band The Bang Bang Bangs to Ultimate Galactic Overlord. Part one opens with his mission statement "The Life and Death of Terminus Abruptus" before chronicling the breakup of the Bang Bang Bangs. From there Terminus undertakes a quest into the dubiously named "purple void" to defeat The Wolves at the End of Time. He wins his victory over the wolves with an ease that surprises even the proud Terminus. Alas, on attempting to leave the purple void he plows headlong into ploaron gas field and his ship begins to burn-up. Exactly "one hot minute" before his inevitable death the Devil appears telling him of the future that would have awaited him as Galactic Overlord and offering him the chance to live it if he would but trade his mortal soul. Suddenly his ease in defeating the Wolves at the End of Time begins to make sense. He accepts the daemons offer and returns to Hegemonic Space a victor where he soon finds that he had been inside of the purple void for over a thousand years. His long awaited return had been prophesized by the daemon priest cult "The Lords of Winter" now worship him as a powerful leader in their Pantheon. With the Winter's blades in tow Terminus begins what history would remember as the"Winter's March" towards central space, the focal point of galactic governance. In order to enter this paradise of the elite however the Winter's March must penetrate and survive the buffer sphere that surrounds it. This is no small feat as many in the galaxy colloquially refer to the buffer sphere simply as "Doom". Part 1 ends with Terminus Abruptus and the Winter's March scaling the Fence at the Edge of Doom and beginning the greatest fight of their lives. Amidst the battle our hero and his new found companions happen upon a wondrous earthen cavern stretching for many miles into the deep cold rock. Tis' here that they find the mysterious vessel containing not one but two reels of what they would have assumed was magnetic tape if it weren't for the strangely purple glow. The first is marked 'Terminus Abruptus And The Bride Of Funknst31n Remix' but the second, the reel that they had been hoping for, is denoted in a strange mid-Straifian dialect as 'The Electric Hammer'.

“An experimental composer from Ireland, Stephen Roddy proves equally adept at crushing soundscapes as he does mysterious melodies.”

- Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 13, 2022.

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