Two years after signing to Nuclear Blast, Belgian extreme metal pioneers Aborted make their full label debut… and what a way to pay back the faith that NB had in signing them. In fairness, the band have been flaying skin and taking no prisoners for just under 30 years now, but to be able to continue to produce output as strong as Vault of Horrors year after year is impressive.
I’m no expert in the extreme metal field, dipping my toe in now and again (and withdrawing it before the piranhas and battery acid take their toll), but there’s something about Aborted that make them that bit more accessible. I was reading a YouTube comment the other day, I think on their Bloodstock performance from a few years back, which said something along the lines of “they’re extreme metal, but with groove” and I think this nails it. Put the rapid blast beats to one side for a moment (talking of which, Ken Bedene is some kind of unnatural machine) and Aborted manage to punctuate these with some wonderful, heavy sections which are actually… catchy. I don’t think it’s unfair to say it’s like they’ve taken something like Lamb of God’s sound and pushed it to the… well, to the extreme.
They also do atmosphere, which works so well across this collection. It’s not unrelenting, it’s paced and it bounces between brutally slamming you in the face and slowly crushing the air from your lungs with its sheer heaviness. The opening of “Deadbringer” and the ending of “Brotherhood of Sleep”, for instance, could slip these songs into soundtracks. The bits in between would suit a montage of the film’s psychotic protagonist going about his bloody business. It’s some disturbing shit. And I love it.
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It’s these extra tweaks that set Aborted apart from the bands which just go all out with the brutality and end up just sounding the same as each other. The little strident tones in “Death Cult”, the slower guitar notes underlying the ferocious drums in the intro to “Hellbound”, “The Golgothan”‘s slow, orchestral build and overtones… Is that a church organ arching over the top of it all?
It is so easy to write off the bands at this end of the metal chart as just relentless noise… and I admit to having been guilty of it in the past. But Vault of Horrors is just so bloody good that I can’t help but appreciate the time and effort that has gone into marrying insane riffage with guitar solos and moshpit-generating flurries of violence.
If extreme metal has a gateway drug, this is it. Fans of the genre should appreciate the outright battering their ears will enjoy, while being able to hand it to their slightly tamer friends to draw them into the fold.
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Header image by Laura Lateralus
Vault of Horrors is out on March 15th
Check out all the bands we review in 2024 on our Spotify and YouTube playlists!
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