I've never really payed much attention to Belgium's Aborted as they've always seemed to me like a low tier goregrind outfit. I've only listened to their 2003 record, Engineering the Dead, and I was less than impressed with it, as their music was forgettable at best. As a result, I've never bothered with any of their output, not even Goremaggedon: The Saw and the Carnage Done, which apparently was their best record, and I kinda forgot about them.
Despite all this, I couldn't help but notice the steady hype that seemed to build around their imminent 2012 release, called Global Flatline. People were getting excited left and right, as vocalist and frontman Svencho had gathered a new lineup and was promising a great album. After seeing the amazing cover art, I too began to feel a tingling of excitement. This could actually be worth listening to!
Now that I finally got a chance to listen to it, I have to give it to everyone else: you were right to be excited. Global Flatline is an absolute beast of a record, with incredibly catchy and heavy songs, built upon intense, crushing riffs that are beautifully complemented by a pounding rhythm section that instantaneously triggered my headbanging reflex. There's a lot of pure, honest-to-God, good old fashioned slamming going on, but the band isn't afraid to bring on the guns and let loose some soaring guitar solos that add a welcome melodic feel to the bloody carnage. The vocals are a big highlight here, as Svencho shouts, yells, grunts, growls and squeals his way through the fifteen tracks of the album, reveling in the typical goregrind subject matter of gore, guts, feces and horrific tortures that involve all three.
It might sound a bit too clean to goregrind purists who need muddy guitar tones and bass that's buried deep in the mix in order to enjoy themselves, but everyone else should get a real kick out of Global Flatline. It's fun, it's bloody, it's catchy and, best of all, it's hugely entertaining and has managed to put Aborted back on the map for me.
No flesh shall quench my impulses to kill!
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