ABORTED - The Archaic Abattoir

ABORTED
The Archaic Abattoir
Olympic Recordings - 2005
7.5/10




Grinding along like the true splattercore champions they are, Aborted delves into tense, disjointed sounds that hack, slash and chop away at some seriously clever death metal that is garnished with touches of thrash and doom.

“Gestated Rabidity” is unremitting in its head-on approach, delivers thick deep guitar chugging and rapid fire double bass hits courtesy of drummer Gilles Dellecroix. Aborted have deliberately moved into a direction that finds the band exploring wider variations in tempo than on “Goremageddon”, implanting a more dynamic touch to tracks like the bruising “Hectatomb” and the weighty, bludgeoning hammering of “Blood Fixing The Bled.”

The bass guitars are a touch masked in the mix, drowned out by the thunderous six-strings, but there’s still an abundance of low-end thump to go around on savage songs like “The Inertia”, which kicks in with an almighty roar that is made all that more dominant in consideration on Dellecroix’s swift feet. Tue Madsen turns in another capable job of production. His guitar tones are always very thick and as on his work with The Haunted’s last record, the guitars retain their edginess while still remaining unquestionably, gravely and heavy.

Vocalist Sven DeCaluwe emits varied, extreme voices, often settling for an abrasive rasp or a commanding, gravelly belch to make his point while during other times; the singer uses a fairly inimitable singing voice that sounds best when accompanied by his deeper trackover.

Aborted have developed sonically with this album while managing to keep hold of their integrity, which is commendable, being that such a feat is rarely accomplished by death metal ensembles. You will hear that they can still bust out a gory groove with a touch that remains as sick as ever on “The Gangrenous Epitaph”, its shredding rhythm descending into a fury of slamming, grinding death.

Worthy of any death metal fan’s awareness, this release will likely dissatisfy only those purists with a tapered, inflexible view of the genre.

ERIN FOX © 2005 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED