Aborted are one of the most criminally underrated death metal bands on the scene today. Initially formed in 1995, the bands pioneering brutal legacy is now coming up on 30 years of age. Constantly shifting and evolving in the Belgian underground scene around lone original member and vocalist Sven De Caluwé, the international cluster of technically gifted musicians have been tightening Aborted’s sound throughout their illustrious career. The bands previous albums, 2018’s Terrorvision and 2021’s ManiaCult, garnered a lot of attention with the resurgence in death metal popularity. New album Vault Of Horrors sees the band keep things easy going, opting to write songs in tribute to their favourite cult horror films and invite their friends to provide guest vocals on each track, leaning into the various bands death metal influences for a horror and death metal anthology.
Opening track and lead single ‘Dreadbringer’ (featuring Ben Duerr of Shadow Of Intent) sets the atmosphere right, stoking tensions and leaning into the cult horror vibes with a spooky synth intro before cascading into relentless death grind blasts and tech heavy riffing. The imposing and epic atmosphere is reminiscent of Shadows Of Intent themselves, the trade offs between De Caluwé and Duerr sound absolutely monstrous. Its exactly what you’d expect from Aborted’s modern era, meant in the best way possible… and that’s just the first of ten. Other single ‘DeathCult’ (featuring Steve Marois of Despised Icon) starts off as expected, with ferocious technical chops, but dips into maniac territory as it goes on. Leaning into the Deathcore energy Marois brings to the table and absolutely steeped in gang chant vocals in the chorus and earth shattering, fist pumping breakdowns.
“The musicians behind Aborted on this album run are, once again, highly talented”
Normally finding themselves dwelling in the more ‘modern’ sound associated with tech death bands and having a scattered production schedule; for the first time since 2016’s Retrogore the band opted to work with death metal heavyweight produced Dave Otero (Cattle Decapitation, Archspire, Khemmis) for the entire production process. The move paid off as this is undoubtedly one of the most cohesive and best sounding albums of Aborted’s lengthy discography.
The guitar tones are suitably unhinged, hitting that golden chainsaw tone on the shreds, absurdly smooth lead tones for the solo’s and chest beating chugs for the breakdowns. It sounds very much in line with the ludicrous clarity and crisp production of Cattle Decapitation’s Terrasite from last year (also handled by Otero). Particular attention has been paid to the vocals, a necessity with the amount of features on this album, giving each vocalist due care to standout from one another and particularly honing in on Caluwé’s talented performances. The musicians behind Aborted on this album run are, once again, highly talented and put on stellar performances. Ludicrously technical drumming courtesy of Ken Bedene, locking in and bringing the gap with the technical lines from bassist Stefano Fraceschini and riff work from guitarists Ian Jekelis and Daniel Konradsson. Frenetically swinging from mind-melting tech death into pounding breakdowns and ludicrously smooth guitar solos.
“A throwback riff that can only be described as Strapping Young Lad’s “Love?” with intent to kill”
Each track has a slightly different type of death metal energy to it that, to a degree, reflects the guest vocalist featured, leading to some really interesting moments. Standout moments include the intro hook of ‘Naturom Demonto’ (featuring David Simonich III of Signs Of The Swarm) which goes on to fully embrace the early Cattle Decapitation deathgrind energy and jaw-crushing breakdown. ‘Brotherhood of Sleep’ (feat. Johnny Ciardullo of Carcosa) is another, setting itself in a mid-paced chug, straddling the line between slam, deathcore and old school death metal pummelling.
Tracks like ‘Insect Politics’ (featuring Jason Evans of Ingested) is an absolute firecracker, leaning into the “grind” side of “death grind”, sitting at just under two minutes, fully embracing Napalm Death levels of punchy chorus’ in a short and sweet burst. Juxtaposing and immediately following this is ‘The Golgothan’ (featuring Hal Microutsicos of Engulf), twice the length of the previous track, revelling in a dramatic tech death introduction before giving way to a throwback riff that can only be described as Strapping Young Lad’s “Love?” with intent to kill. Bolstered by a bombastic guitar solo, ephemeral hooks searing into your ear drums and a 2010 style synth bridge into a breakdown; considering the subject of the lyrics is a literal shit demon, this song is anything but cack.
Death metal and horror movies have always been suitable bedfellows and while Aborted aren’t treading any new ground thematically, its hard not to enjoy this grandiose and wholehearted celebration of all things horror and death metal. Vault Of Horrors is easily some of the bands best production and simply put is just an incredibly enjoyable experience for any fan of the extreme music scene. It is death metal party music, clearly not meant to be taken overly seriously and enjoyed as fun. Fully embracing the cheesy aspects as well as the serious and regularly levelling the listeners expectations with face ripping technicality, pulverising breakdowns and neck shattering song structures.