Pink vinyl for sale on Nuclear Blast... Hope they expand on the sound of their prior album for this one. Global Flatline is my favorite Aborted release, so something in that style would be nice.

Agreed. GF was really good. I don't care if they expand the sound or not; I just want this to be good.

It looks like Jacob Hansen's producing this one too so hopefully that first track isn't an indicator of overall quality and it manages to at least live up to Global Flatline.

The album lacks serious punch that's for sure. Fairly catchy at times, but by no means brutal.

At best, average. Such shame

Hope that Converge cover isn't average.

They should release an album dedicated to pinhead. I swear most of their albums have an audio clip from the movies. They should call it "Chronicles of the Hellraiser"

This isn't bad actually. It's the kind of album that should be appreciated front to back rather than per song. Not as good as Global Flatline but still better than anything they did before that up to Goremageddon.

A Great release. Some really stand out tracks. Cenobites was amazing!

Written by Guest on 11.05.2014 at 06:04

Not as good as Global Flatline but still better than anything they did before that up to Goremageddon.

Engineering The Dead is where it's clearly at, foo'

I haven't listened to this. I suspect I never will.

They done fucked up. Where did all the creativity from Global Flatline go?

LeKiwi you never cease to surprise me. I mean for a guy who considers everything progressive and focuses so much on progressive song structures, musical composition, and technicality, for you to bring up creativity in an Aborted album thread... Leaves me scratching my head for sure.

I like Global Flatline. In fact it's my favorite Aborted release to date, tied with their debut. But I fail to see any creativity there, or at least not any amount that would make you think this one a failure by comparison.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 02.07.2014 at 04:52

LeKiwi you never cease to surprise me. I mean for a guy who considers everything progressive and focuses so much on progressive song structures, musical composition, and technicality, for you to bring up creativity in an Aborted album thread... Leaves me scratching my head for sure.

I like Global Flatline. In fact it's my favorite Aborted release to date, tied with their debut. But I fail to see any creativity there, or at least not any amount that would make you think this one a failure by comparison.

I speak of creativity with respect to melody and groove, something that appears to be lacking severely on this album. Back when Global Flatline came out, I was "innocent". There was not a single song featuring consistent fast drumming, let alone blast beats, that I enjoyed. When I heard said album, I was blown away by the fact that something that heavy could be so enjoyable. Obviously I've since matured musically, but I still recognise that this isn't the Aborted that I valued so much.

Also - the solos. Those original, meticulously-crafted solos...I miss those...

Written by deadone on 03.07.2014 at 01:56

I think Aborted are one of those "the first album you hear is always best" type band.


I had heard their pre-Archaic Abbatoir stuff but not in any major way. I then heard Archaic Abbattoir and think it's a superb album. But nothing else has ever really worked.

I think it's down to the fact there's so little variation in sound that the first one is generally the most memorable on account of being first. Plenty of other bands are like this too.

I was thinking this earlier today and agree that it definitely influences one's perception of an album (especially when the band churns out albums in a similar style), but I can also think of several scenarios where the opposite happened. Interesting point regardless.

For instance, "Expurgation Euphoria" off Global Flatline and "Die Verzweiflung" off this one - both songs were written in the same lethargic vibe, yet the former is far more memorable. Not sure if that's biased since I've heard that song dozens of times.

Experiment: if there's anyone for whom this is the only Aborted album they've heard, go listen to Global Flatline and write what you think here.

Written by deadone on 03.07.2014 at 02:17

I think it does go both ways.

First Paradise Lost stuff I heard was their more Death Metal orientated stuff which I didn't like and sold off. I then heard their clean vocal stuff and loved it.

A less extreme version would be Amon Amarth, who I thought were quite repetitive "meh" until Twilight of the Thundergod which had all cylinders firing perfectly. They then went back to repetitive "meh".

By the same token, bands like Aborted, Kataklysm, Devil Driver, Gassow era Arch Enemy, Cannibal Corpse etc seem to be "a first album heard is best."

...or perhaps: the best (or most accessible) album is the most popular and the chances of hearing that first is high? I'm over-thinking again...

Written by LeKiwi on 03.07.2014 at 02:21
...or perhaps: the best (or most accessible) album is the most popular and the chances of hearing that first is high? I'm over-thinking again...

What I noticed about the "new" Aborted is that people often disagree on which album is better than the other. I think they're just all approximately on the same level of disappointing compared to Goremaggedon and Engineering. In that sense people might have seen a pattern emerging, and they re-direct new listeners to the older albums automatically.

Written by deadone on 03.07.2014 at 03:13
I think the lack of consensus all points to my notion of "cut and paste" albums to a formula without virtually any variation from album to album or even noticeable difference in quality of production, performance and song writing.
Maybe another applicable cliche to apply to many metal bands today would be "playing it safe."

Well that's the thing, they didn't just copy/paste, they actually tried to win back their fans and changed a little. I have inside intelligence that told me their incessant changes in lineup are due to that pressure. But still, the same changes in lineup deprived them of whatever consistency they could have acquired with time. That's why the albums are often described as "oh it's different, I don't like it, but I don't know why". Add to that too much haste, musicians living in different countries, and involved in other projects at the same time. I'm not saying these are the only causes of the dip in quality, but these contingencies took their toll on the Aborted I loved.

Really? You don't hear much difference between S&A, Strychnine, and Global Flatline? Not to mention between their back catalog?

Aborted started out somewhat similar to Blood Red Throne's first two albums - that kind of slower-paced groovy death metal but not as emphasized as, say, Bolt Thrower. Then they started picking up some grind influence and speeding up their sound while altering their guitar tone to sound more saw-like than before. Then they moved into far more melodic territory and dropped the speedy grind influence altogether. And now they're in a kind of a modern brutal death metal phase.

If that isn't change, I don't know what is - especially within the confines of death metal.

Written by deadone on 03.07.2014 at 03:50
I've not heard too much in change though at least not since Slaughter & Apparatus. As for their claims about getting brutal, I'm not hearing it.
In the end it's cookie cutter Aborted without any flair to it.
It's good in that you can listen to it and enjoy it but at the same time the new albums are completely interchangeable.
Personally I think they need to amp the groove and brutal melody from Archaic Abbattoir. That album pushed all my commercial mainstream metal whore buttons.

They did change, for the worst. Strychnine was a very pathetic attempt at something melodic, it has nothing to do with Slaughter & Apparatus. What I meant was that although the band did change directions, and more than once after Goremageddon, the overall quality of their albums was the same: far below what was expected of them. That's why people are still preferring the old Aborted, regardless of changes in style that could have actually won them over.

Ninja'd. I have to work on my typing skills.

Written by Ilham on 03.07.2014 at 04:06

That's why people are still preferring the old Aborted, regardless of changes in style that could have actually won them over.

Hi there. I prefer Global Flatline over any of their albums. Bye.

Written by LeKiwi on 03.07.2014 at 04:15

Hi there. I prefer Global Flatline over any of their albums. Bye.

I'm sorry. You're very special. Sorry your mum didn't tell you enough when you were little.

Written by deadone on 03.07.2014 at 04:26
My favourite is Archaic Abbattoir. What do you say to that?

You too will have your two minutes of attention. Sorry for speaking in general terms, I will now only speak according to what you and LeKiwi think .

Of course they don't have much in common with the legitimate heavyweights of brutal death metal (although I won't get into a debate over your inclusion of Cannibal Corpse and Deicide since that's a whole other topic) but they are now more influenced by that scene in terms of their songwriting compared to S&A and Strychnine.

I don't know how you only consider these changes to be "tinkering". There's a reason for the band facing such a negative backlash from their fans over the past few years, because the change in their sound was so substantial. With this album and Global Flatline they sought to get back on the good side of the fans who wanted a more impactful and in-your-face form of brutality, but they still held on to their melodic leanings.

They aren't about to release an Unspoken King for the sake of changing it up that drastically. They still intend to fit within the confines of extreme metal and they've generally had a set direction to follow but with varying ways of achieving that throughout their entire discography. If you're sticking to your argument that these changes aren't more noticeable than "tinkering" then I think it's safe to say we're hearing things much differently.

I'm not sure why you're focusing so closely on the genre debate as I'm not trying to make them out to be a purely brutal death metal band. Like I said, they've retained the melodic aspect of their sound that they introduced a handful of years ago. They're certainly more streamlined than traditional brutal death metal bands such as Suffocation or Cephalotripsy, but they are also undoubtedly influenced by that level of brutality compared to the "normal" death metal bands. This likely has a lot to do with the fact they had already dabbled with grind elements in the past.

My point is that over the course of their career, Aborted have changed fairly drastically (for a band that never changed genres). I can get on board with someone saying Nile haven't changed their sound, only tinkered. Same goes for Cannibal Corpse. All of their albums follow the same formula and feature pretty much all of the defining characteristics that have become synonymous with those bands. But Aborted have gone from groove to grind to melody to brutality, borrowing elements from previous albums with every subsequent release because they are in a constant state of change - again, within the confines of death metal. (Just in case anyone reading this jumps on me for making them sound avant-garde.)

I would call that more than simply tinkering, especially when you look at this album and its predecessor compared to their back catalog and everything in between. As I said before, if you're hearing more of the same then we will not agree on this as our sense of hearing is clearly different.

I will continue this debate at a later time when I have not been affected by rum. It has hit me sooner than I would have liked but I appreciate the discussion at hand. Been a whilesince I engaged in a good back and forth about a metal album on this site. Kudos to you deadone but I will be back for more.

The conversation's over? Cool. I still like Global Flatline the most

Old Aborted was indeed boring. I also think GF is the best thing they've done.