Intro and outro functions in the context of Thomas Börje Forsberg’s albums

Abstract

This essay concerns the constant meter on Thomas Börje Forsberg’s (Bathory, Quorthon) albums of introductions and outroductions (“intros” and “outros”), placed at the beginning and end of albums or performances of songs. Introductions and outroductions refer to the imagination of the transducer. Together with the album cover and lyrics, they create a kind of imaginary illustration; a kind of soundscape that cannot be heard only by auditory perception, focused on the melodic and rhythmic course. It heals, directs, specifically defines this perception, and equips to determine the importance of using association scores. External sounds are instrumentalized; the sounds are clothed with additional semantic content. Introductions and outroductions determine the composition of the albums, fulfilling in them the scheme of a bracket or structural frame, which can, for example, be associated (especially in the first three albums by Bathory) with an attempt to imitate the course of religious conduct – a ritual order with its specific determination of application and closure. The introduction, therefore, is the task of the listener in the atmosphere of
some reality (religious or quasi‑religious, mythological, socio‑political), while the outroduction is responsible for the culmination of this experience. In Forsberg’s albums, it is possible to add several generalized semantic circles into which introductions and outroductions fit. Each of these items has an album/track relation with text enabled.