By:
Daniel Jackson
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 22/04/2016
Label: Century Media
Records
The story of ‘Retrogore’ is that of an album that creates memorable
moments, rather than relying on pure heaviness and technicality. There is plenty of variety from song to song,
with Aborted showing that they’ve found a way to come up with new ideas without
throwing their standard strengths as a band out the window in the name of
progress. On that basis, Aborted are undeniably at their best on this album.
‘Retrogore’ CD//LP//DD track listing:
1.
Dellamorte Dellamore
2.
Retrogore
3.
Cadaverous Collection
4.
Whoremageddon
5.
Termination Redux (Album Version)
6.
Bit By Bit
7.
Divine Impediment
8.
Coven Of Ignorance
9.
The Mephitic Conundrum
10.
Forged In Decrepitude
11.
From Beyond (The Grave)
12.
In Avernus
Aborted is:
Sven
De Caluwe | Vocals
Mendel
Bij De Leij | Guitars
Ian
Jekelis | Guitars
JB
van der Wal | Bass
Ken
Bedene | Drums
The Review:
Aborted have been doing
this for nearly twenty years at this point. The band’s history paints a story
that’s becoming all the more common as the years wear on. They hit an early
peak with ‘Engineering the Dead’ and
‘Goremageddon: The Saw and the Carnage
Done’, in 2001 and 2003 respectively, before losing their way on the albums
that followed. Their attempts to add strong influences from hardcore and groove
metal into their sound produced decidedly mixed results.
Of
course, a band is always going to try new things, and by the time 2012’s ‘Global Flatline’ had arrived, Aborted had settled back into a much more straightforward
death metal style anyway, and they’d become ridiculously tight as musicians in
the interim. 2014’s ‘Necrotic Manifesto’
was likely their best since ‘Goremageddon’,
though the album seems to have been carried more by its dizzying brutality than
truly memorable songs, in retrospect. Were ‘Retrogore’ to follow suit, I’d probably be writing about a case of
diminishing returns. Thankfully, the story of ‘Retrogore’ is that of an album that creates memorable moments,
rather than relying on pure heaviness and technicality.
A
key example of Aborted allowing atmosphere and clever riff
writing to shine through the dense, note and blast-heavy tempest is “Divine
Impediment”. The song opens with some relatively clean guitar work aiding in
building to a big moment as the drums progress towards their absolute peak in
intensity before finally exploding into a furious riff that takes on a
different tone altogether. Interestingly, from that point on the songs echo Nile’s excellent ‘Annihilation
of the Wicked’ and ‘Those Whom the
Gods Detest’ albums. It’s worth noting that every member of the band is
positively on fire throughout the rest of the album as well, with the guitars
putting together the band’s finest performances to date both from a rhythm and
lead standpoint.
‘Retrogore’ stands to hold up as a much
more interesting album than ‘Necrotic
Manifesto’ for its variety as the years go on. There is plenty of variety
from song to song, with Aborted showing that
they’ve found a way to come up with new ideas without throwing their standard
strengths as a band out the window in the name of progress. Aborted are
undeniably at their best on this album.
Band info: Facebook
