Review: Aborted Trawl the Depths of Extremity with Vault of Horrors
At this point, Aborted are a band that need no introduction. While that’s an overused phrase in a lot of cases, I’m not necessarily even saying that means they’re unimpeachable. A lot of folks prop up Aborted as THE example of riffing and shredding, while others find them to be a cringy gateway deathcore band. But whatever camp you fall into, chances are you’ve heard of them.
With 25 years now under their belt, Aborted have a new album, Vault of Horrors, coming out March 15 via Nuclear Blast. And through all that time as a band, this new release shows they’ve grown a lot in the musical department. It feels like each new composition from the band is more nuts and unhinged than the last. And truly, even if this isn’t the music for you, it’s really hard to argue that they aren’t extremely proficient and talented.
All that being said, there are a few moments where I think it misses the mark just a little. I’m not saying that bands need to follow every trend, and certainly with Aborted, we expect technicality and clean production. The day they come out with a doom record or an old-school death metal cut with toned down production is the day I’ll do an in-depth review of the latest Taylor Swift. That’s how sure I am that it won’t happen.
The record starts off strong right out of the gate with “Dreadbringer,” immediately fast and blasting with ripping guitars. That’s amazing, and it makes you bang your head and pump your fist from moment one. But it also means there’s not a whole lot of room for the band to laterally move after that. The rest of the album kind of has to be that fast and punishing or they’ll loose speed.
Many of the songs on the album are inspired by film, certainly nothing new for death metal. “Death Cult” is inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the song is definitely as disturbing as the movie. The amount of time signature changes and alternating tales is as impressive as Leatherface’s bodycount. “The Golgothan” is apparently inspired by Clerks. While that’s not a brutal movie, unless you’re measuring brutality by the shots it takes at capitalism, the song is one of the heaviest on the record.
But through all this, I’m not really getting an individual sense on each song for how they translate to the themes. Mortician would have used a bunch of samples, and many bands would have kind of changed the tone of each song to fit the vibe of what they’re inspired by, but Aborted don’t do that. They just do what they do best and riff all over the place, which is amazing, but doesn’t really translate to the themes—those seem to be contained mainly in the lyrics.
“The Shape Of Hate” is one of my favorite songs on the album, as it’s a little more atmospheric with a little more room to breathe, but still with crazy riffs. This one inspired by Halloween. The same can be said for “Malevolent Haze” inspired by The Mist, though I think that one could be even more slow and heavy.
Overall, this record rips, but I think it could have slowed down and enjoyed itself a bit and pushed some of these themes just a little further.
Aborted’s Vault of Horrors will be available this Friday, March 15 via Nuclear Blast. Preorder your copy today.
