Review: Aborted 'Termination Redux'

When you feel the need to be smacked on the back of the head with an aural assault on your senses akin to a hammer to the temple, Aborted never fail to deliver. Eight albums into their career, they are now celebrating 20 years on the extremities of metal, and what better way to raise a blood-filled glass, than to release an EP to whet the appetite for death metal gore ahead of the next full length release.

The ‘Terminus Redux’ EP is a strange wee beastie from the Belgians. When you see ‘redux’ in any title, you await re-workings of previously released tracks, yet on this intense splatter-filled release the only re-working is ‘Holocaust Incarnate’ from the 2001 release ‘Engineering The Dead’. That being said, Aborted do not disappoint – they rarely do.

Opening with the stern warning that “Hell is nothing, hell is only a word, reality is much worse” on ‘Liberate Me Ex Infernis’, it is only moments before ‘Termination Redux’ tears into the fabric of the universe.

Svencho is, as usual, angry and anguished as guttural grunts and impassioned observations are backed by musicianship of the highest level. Let’s be straight, some death/gore metal bands cannot play to a high standard or arrange songs. Aborted can, and two minutes in, Mendel bij de Leij uses the breakdown well to showcase his abuse of the strings.

The band are nothing less than a complete unit in delivering extreme metal, and even the pinch harmonics on ‘Vestal Disfigurement Upon The Sacred Chantry’ are not out of place, as drummer Ken Bedene gives a masterclass in mixing up styles and techniques without over-shadowing the track. The two minutes plus of ‘Bound In Acrimony’ have all the techical dexterity fans have come to expect from Aborted. Closer, the ‘re-engineered’ track ‘The Holocaust Re-Incarnate’ takes the original, batters it around a bit, adds turbo-boost riffing that is as close to ‘catchy’ as you’ll find on any death metal release, together with some haunting vocals.

Aborted are not going to win many fans outside the extreme metal scene, but they do deliver a level of intensity and challenging lyrics that are both uncomfortable to tap into and satisfying in terms of that sense of being smashed in the face and re-booting your attitude. As a taster for their upcoming tour and album, ‘Termination Redux’ will prime fans for that over-used word – brutality. Aborted=brutal. Heads down, bring the brutal noise, snapped necks in the immediate future for the band’s audience.

Review: Jonny Traynor

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