Termination Redux was but a tease of the straight-shooting deathgrind that Aborted dole out on Retrogore. Leave it to this band to put out a stellar full length release so shortly after one smaller and equally great. In the current climate, most can’t manage that. The usual minor derision from certain sectors aside, each of their last few releases has got fans off. They’ve made newcomers thirsty too. Is this more of the great deathgrind these guys are known for, while at its core being not much of a departure from the last few spins? Well, yeah. It’s fucking Aborted.
As far as this genre of music goes, hitting heavier than the rest is all important. Nuances can be put under the microscope and the inner workings can be pulled apart and looked at musically – and they will be – but deep, deep down Retrogore is simply a brutal example of expertly crafted extreme music. It only takes one short intro soundbite before things take their ugly, deranged shape. When others around may scare listeners with the cautious opening notes of a new record, Aborted just hit play again after the final moments of “The Holocaust Reincarnate”. The Euro metal legends barely need the introduction.
As crushing as the first moment anyone hears the band, the menacing, whirlwind of riffs, drums and staccato grunts starts up and burns at a heat few can muster. It’s exciting because it doesn’t give a hoot that there’s no real respite from just how blunt it is. With names like “Whoremageddon” and “Bit By Bit,” these boys are still guilty of being as forward as possible. Something about the demonic phrasing of Svencho on these tracks just puts them up on that pedestal. Carnal stuff. Slap on their best production job in years (yes, even better than The Necrotic Manifesto) and this band of finely tuned killing machines really get to display their lethal, cutting chops. Aborted don’t run out of gas, ever.
It’s only when “Termination Redux” reenters the Aborted discography that it’s easily realised that yeah, this is definitely some more of the same great metal. It’s comforting, knowing that there is plenty more to come from this record. Flip side though and it could also be the point where attention may jump around a touch. Admittedly, after several runs through, focus was abandoned for minutes at a time. The sheer force of the music always pulled it back, only for it to desert again. Even with a new found knack of injecting melodeath moments under the skin of blistering grind, some of the tracks are just boorish. Bruising, yes. Beautiful, no. But what sort of listener consciously hits play on Retrogore without grasping that it’s going to be like this?
Aborted are the best at what they do. Why pick over the fine details? It’s with a love of all things brutal and horrific that this music is made, so when it’s horrific and brutal, how could anyone want much more? The Belgians don’t miss a step; they take a big one down the same path they’ve been treading for some time now. At some point along the line it’s clear the band will fuck with their sound once more but at this point, they don’t need to. Retrogore is a splatter movie classic masquerading as an extreme metal record. As tongue in cheek as ever and equally as authentic, this band are on the frontlines of this sound and quite rightly so. Blast kings of the macabre incarnate.
Aborted’s Retrogore gets…
4/5