Slaughter And Apparatus [ECD] - Aborted

The newest album from Aborted continues in the same vein as its predecessor, moving towards a pleasing fusion of melodic death metal and the brutal goregrind of their earlier albums. The resulting concoction reaches its zenith here, heavy enough to satisfy long-time fans and without the frightening brain-hammering that would put off queasier newcomers. This Belgian band's transition from gore-obsessed noise to something more musically accomplished ...
...disbanded Liverpool band Carcass over ten years earlier, and the inspiration is fully acknowledged through a guest performance by Carcass' Jeff Walker on two songs, allowing Aborted complete freedom to rip his band's sound off almost completely.

'Slaughter and Apparatus: A Methodical Overture' is more than a simple 'Heartwork' clone, though the sonic similarities (right down to some identical sounding riffs) make it a fitting modern-day ... more

The newest album from Aborted continues in the same vein as its predecessor, moving towards a pleasing fusion of melodic death metal and the brutal goregrind of their earlier albums. The resulting concoction reaches its zenith here, heavy enough to satisfy long-time fans and without the frightening brain-hammering that would put off queasier newcomers. This Belgian band's transition from gore-obsessed noise to something more musically accomplished and traditional follows directly in the bloodied footsteps of the disbanded Liverpool band Carcass over ten years earlier, and the inspiration is fully acknowledged through a guest performance by Carcass' Jeff Walker on two songs, allowing Aborted complete freedom to rip his band's sound off almost completely.

'Slaughter and Apparatus: A Methodical Overture' is more than a simple 'Heartwork' clone, though the sonic similarities (right down to some identical sounding riffs) make it a fitting modern-day tribute, depressingly showing just how little progress has been made since that definitive and massively influential 1994 opus. Aborted's take is naturally heavier, as the band's departure from a purer strain of brutal death metal hasn't taken away the edge they possess over the hordes of poor imitators, complete with tediously shocking subject matter. Aborted's own niche has always been its thematic focus on surgical abominations and malpractice, but this gimmick is noticeably less present here than it was a few years back when each song title competed with the last in the vomit-inducing stakes. There's an obvious degree of maturity here that finally catches up to the band's technical skill, and the fresh blood of relentless session drummer David Haley keeps the energy level consistently high throughout its exhausting forty-two minutes, the band's longest album to date.

1. The Chondrin Enigma
2. A Methodical Overture
3. Avenious
4. The Spaying Séance
5. And Carnage Basked in its Ebullience
6. The Foul Nucleus of Resurrection
7. Archetype
8. Ingenuity in Genocide
9. Odious Emanation
10. Prolific Murder Contrivance
11. Underneath Rorulent Soil

As a sign of the greater focus on musicianship over cheap shocks and competitive heaviness for heaviness' sake, gone are the overlong film snippets and voice samples that used to dominate the early parts of songs, restricted to a couple of brief introductory samples at key points. The album builds up anticipation with some nice distortion and American news broadcasts about something or other before the band lets rip. Haley's drumming is extremely prominent, which can actually become a little irritating in its repetitiveness at times; although he makes excellent use of the bass pedals to provide a spine for the album's rhythms, his frequent skin assaults (it's hard to describe this band without slipping into medical terminology) conjure the image of a bloke beating the hell out of some metal bins, which isn't really to my taste and is a little horrifyingly reminiscent of Metallica's last album. Nevertheless, the production job is flawless, providing a great depth and volume that's necessary to get across the full power of the band, and their roots in technical death keep the guitars of Matty Dupont and Seb Purulator (not his real name) a focal point that speeds through multiple interesting and organic changes each minute without spiralling into excessive fret masturbation. Most songs feature some impressive lead sections that bring the Carcass influence to the forefront, and a few feature some highly enjoyable solos in the classic style, as opposed to the squealing discordance practiced by most death metal outfits.

Vocalist Sven de Caluwe is one of the more impressive in his field, here alternating between a standard gurgling grunt and a more aggressive yell that comes across sounding a lot like In Flames' Anders Fridén, especially when the silly electronic distortion is added in track eight. Sven fortunately avoids any kind of metalcore 'clean' vocals that would really rob the album of its ferocity and spoil even its less brutal moments, but even the move on from a permanent grunting style ought to annoy some purists. While some songs stick to the older wall-of-sound style fairly rigidly, such as the second track and some of the even stronger pieces towards the end, most are eager to try something new, even if Carcass and Arch Enemy had already been there long before. 'Avenious' is the first to venture into truly melodic territory, leaving much of the brutality behind in favour of blending aggression with pleasantly high guitars, and as usual I much prefer these slightly slower, more thought-out pieces to the often mindless brain-crushing riffs of the shorter songs. The album makes excessive and distinctly odd use of fade-outs for around half of the songs, some of which are improved by the drawn-out conclusion, and others of which could just as easily have ground to a halt before getting on with the next. The greater focus on crafting intricate songs also works to keep the album entertaining throughout, only really failing with the very last track which seems to drag on for the last couple of minutes and run out of steam, which makes for a bit of an anticlimax.

'Slaughter and Apparatus' sees Aborted continuing to claw their way out of the niche they very effectively formed with their cultish early albums, aiming for a wider audience that would greatly enjoy this continuing change of direction for the band. There are enough groove-driven riffs to make it appealing to even the most brain-dead Pantera fan, and it successfully flirts around the spiteful metalcore trend without selling its soul. Hopefully, angry kids will start listening to this sort of music instead, allowing those fallen melodic death bands to come back from the dark side, and making everyone a lot happier. As expected, it's near impossible to discern what Sven is growling about in these eleven songs, only really becoming intelligible when he yells, but whatever the hell he's angry about, it's impossible not to concur with him wholeheartedly. 

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