Review ABORTED ‘Vault of Horrors’

One of the most established extreme metal bands from Belgium, that is Aborted. Although the origins of the band are rooted in East Flanders, Aborted became more and more a multi-national band and it is frontman Sven de Caluwé who keeps things up and running.

The band premiered in 1999 with an album called ‘The Purity of Perversion’ and with a lot of willpower, Aborted added another ten longplayers to their list of deliveries with ‘Vault of Horrors’ being the newest strike from Belgium.

There are few things that are new when it comes to the band. First important thing is a line-up change. Daníel Máni Konráðsson whose addition means that the band can again work with the power of two guitars, allowing some more flexibility. Next to that Aborted release the ‘Vault of Horrors’ on Nuclear Blast and there is another element to be found on this album. Aborted invited a long list of guest singers/growls, including guys like Matt McGachy (Cryptopsy), Oliver Rae Aleron (Archspire), Rick Hoover (Ov Sulfur) and more.

The band delivers ten brutal death metal songs and that the guys aren’t shy of using a few synth additions is what ‘The Gologthan’ brings to fore. Hereby the grindcore elements are all gone and what comes more and more into focus is deathcore. Listening e.g. to songs like the massive ‘Naturom Demoto’ means that neck muscles must be in good shape because otherwise things can go wrong while intensely headbanging.

And as the title of the album already indicates, it again about horror whole there are horror movies like ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ that provided the inspiration for ‘Death Cult’.

Aborted also pummel their way through the splatter world of horror in 2024 and deliver exactly what fans want to listen to. No compromises are made here and together with a rich sound, the album bursts out of the speakers. This record is a musical slap in the face and good neck muscles are a great asset to handle it.