AN NCS PREMIERE: LISTEN TO A FULL STREAM OF ABORTED’S “NECROTIC MANIFESTO”

(In this post BadWolf reviews the new album by Aborted — The Necrotic Manifesto — and we bring you for the first time anywhere a full stream of the album in its entirety.)

When you have a staff as wild as the NCS crew, it’s pretty difficult to arrive at anything approaching consensus. Between Islander, myself, Izzy and Andy, not to mention our various contributing writers, we like pretty much every style of metal (Note: that sentence, to anyone just casually reading this site, probably sounds completely absurd. You’re right. It’s totally absurd, but follow me). Concordantly, whenever there’s a record that every single one of us feels strongly about, it’s worth getting up and taking notice. One such record was Aborted’s 2012 rager, Global Flatline, which somehow wound up on every single one of our year-end lists. Maybe that’s why we have the privilege of streaming its successor, The Necrotic Manifesto, in its entirety for you below!

Aborted haven’t messed with their formula much in the last two years, which is good; why mess with perfection? The Belgian five-piece combines gory death metal with hardcore and grindcore influences as well as anybody else. If you wanted, you could call them a deathcore band, but why would you want to? Their approach doesn’t rely on big, meaty breakdowns to carry otherwise limp songs. Sure, there’s a massive bruiser at the end of “The Davidian Deceit,” but the three minutes leading up are chock full of squealing guitar runs and lock-step grooves as well.

Aborted do one thing better than almost every deathgrind band: hooks. They actually want you to remember their songs. Vocalist Sven “Svencho” De Caluwé has a wide array of vocal techniques, each used for maximum impact in the service of a memorable chorus, such as on “Coffin Upon Coffin.” Unlike their contemporaries, Aborted also have a strong sense of melody, reminiscent of mid-period Carcass (probably the band’s single strongest influence), and while it usually plays second fiddle to brutality, some of that beauty does come to the front in “Die Verzweiflung.”

Svencho more-or-less assembled an all new backing band on Global Flatline, and on this, their second record together, his cohorts are more focused on tight rhythms than before. The riffs on the title track churn like choppy water, and when the low-end hits at the end, the impact is palpable. Aborted are equally comfortable playing in mid-paced pounding mode (the aforementioned “Coffin Upon Coffin”) as they are playing a quick grind song such as “Your Entitlement Means Nothing.” That song in particular, with its shout-along chorus and pitch-perfect vocal sample from the film Hobo With A Shotgun, stands out—I know DGR and I have often listened to it in hopes of alleviating the frustrations of our day jobs.

By the way, when it comes to cheesy horror movie samples, Aborted are probably the best at that as well, even though after The Necrotic Manifesto I’m not sure there will be a single line of dialog left from Hellraiser II to use.

It’s shaping up to be a golden year for death-grind. That last Benighted album raised the bar, and the new Misery Index record is poised to raise it yet again. In this crowded field, however, Aborted’s The Necrotic Manifesto still stands out. It’s as catchy as brutal death metal can get, and I love it for that, and if anyone disagrees, I’ll make them wish they were fucking Aborted.

The Necrotic Manifesto is set for release on April 28 in Europe and April 29 in North America via Century Media and can be ordered in various formats here. Below you can let this beast rampage through your head from start to finish.

https://www.facebook.com/Abortedofficial/