Goremageddon: The Saw and the Carnage Done

For a fan of this style, this is as good as it gets. The album sounds both undeniably brutal and thick, as well as precise and clinical. Musically it's a potent mixture of single note riffing assaults; relentless and hyperactive; scornful tremolo picking and heavy power chord stomps. The guitarists put in a complete effort and showcase a wide array of licks and technique. Overpowering herta rhythm patterns slow down the tempo on ominous breakdowns while the articulated riffs feature jack-knife quick hammer on/pull off motions in the midst of a comprehensive exploration of the fret-board. There's a definite hoarse nature to the guitar parts, with the occasional discordance to add a dark tincture to the whole (notably the outro to 'Ornaments of Derision').

There's a clear Carcass influence here, as is expected on a modern early/mid 2000's deathgrind record: that recognizable unapologetic demeanor about the riffs with fat chunks of hi-gain guitar aggression, the suspended power chord grooves, the guttural low/high pitched scream trade-off vocals (both excellent), and ultimately a sort of filthy, even grotesque edge to the sound. Also the blending of genuine melody thrown into the mix, reminiscent at times of the Carcass 'Heartwork' album, which provides a bit more complexity to the sound and gives the album a less one-dimensional feel.

The album is furious and relentless. It feels both chaotic (grindcore) and orderly (technical death metal) simultaneously but manages to find a real balance between its different dynamics. The area where it might lack is in how it could've used a darker atmosphere. From a helicopter view despite its efforts at being versatile, the album might still appear to be dwelling on an even surface with few peaks and valleys between the tracks. It's true some of the parts are sinister sounding, but one might feel the addition of more ominous and obscure elements incorporated into the songs would give this a more mature and threatening aura.

The one formula works for a while; and it should be emphasized for the style it's really well written and executed material that's imaginative and utterly intense; but after some time, the constant frantic riffing and high tempo blasts with the "Ah-Ee-Ooh-Errr" vocal caricature will probably get tiring. At that point after a few tracks the listener might request more substance or variation of some sort, and in extreme metal that often comes in the form of abyssal darkness: slower, more memorable parts that plunge the audience into a deep dark pit that they won't be capable of forgetting. That's what technically proficient, riff-based bands like Cannibal Corpse or Gorguts manage to pull off and it gives their songs a depth and mystique that stays with the listener and provides the much needed rest from the hectic cacophony that rages throughout the records. For a band that prides itself on being all about the gore and horror they don't come across as particularly obscure.
These guys supply the dynamite, but isn't there more to life than blowing up everything ? Deep thoughts for the brave mind.

This was my first Aborted album, I basically checked to see which albums were the best. My eyes clapped on this one and I must be honest: the first week into the album, it didn't click with me. I honestly didn't feel that this was anything special, in fact I was kind of disappointed. I expected my first Aborted album to be great because it received such praise from the fans. I was beginning to think: "is this what makes a good album?" The second week into the album I began to get used to it and liked it more and more with each listen. It's my third week now and I'm literally worshiping it.

I) First thing's first: the sound. This album makes you really feel like your stomach is getting torn open by a saw. That's basically how the sound is described. Its brutal and powerful and there's definitely a mesh of intense distortion. The vocals are layered perfectly as the guitars play along to a fast rhythm, I would like to say also that the guitars produced melodic, beautiful solos. It doesn't make the album sound like flowers and rainbows, and that's good. With a title like Goremageddon then everything must sound eerie and evil, Aborted executed that beautifully.

II) The songs had some nice dialogue filler and that was interesting! It was a perfect move because it pauses the intensity for a few seconds and then resumes afterwards. It makes the song sound suspenseful in many ways and it adds to the intensity mentioned above. Shortly put: this band is like Torsofuck on steroids (and they also don't have morbid porncore themes), I know I shouldn't even compare Torsofuck with Aborted as they are different, but in terms of intensity and hardcore levels they're similar. The drummer is a total tank because he packs the intensity and power into this album and it blends with the distortion that the guitars had to offer.

The brutality is, without a doubt, intense! I can't stress this enough! The vocals are guttural and they fit well with the distorted guitars and drums, this album is a real treat even though you may hate it for the first week or two. The issue with this album is that it's an album that you need to get used to, it's not something that you could like straight away (unless you are familiar with the band's discography). Nevertheless, this album is worth picking up, if you're not into really hardcore death metal...maybe this isn't for you. This album is meant for brutal individuals only.

Aborted quickly became one of my favorite death metal bands from first listen. After listening to each release, I can safely say this is their best. This is some of the most genuinely brutal, heavy, crushing death metal ever made.

Svencho is an amazing death metal vocalist. His grunts and growls are so unique. There really is no-one who sounds like him. He's also pretty good at the higher vocals. A bit like the higher vocals of Exhumed, but more raspy. Svencho's lyrics are Carcass influenced gore metal, but they're well written with medical terminology, as opposed to amateurish B-movie horror you'd expect from a band like Cannibal Corpse.

The guitar tone sounds a bit like a lower tuned version of Left Hand Path by Entombed (who are a big influence on Aborted), and I love that album's tone, so i love this one just as much. The band also employ some melodic solos from time to time, as can be heard in the (half) title track "The Saw and Carnage Done" and closer Nemesis. A brutal death metal band with a guitarist that can play a decent solo is rare, and when they're performed as great as this, it's going to sound fucking sweet. Occasionally the band will play some amazing breakdowns, tastefully placed and well executed. Definitely Suffocation influenced as opposed to metalcore.

The bass is mostly inaudible, but the guitars are so fucking loud i'm not surprised. It's mostly likely the bassist is just following the guitars.

The drums are fast as fuck. Blast beats are employed in abundance, as well as skillful fills that keep the music going at a decent pace. Variation is not required, as the music is too fast it probably wouldn't work.

Samples and audio clips are also common, but unlike most brutal/slam bands, they're well used, short and relevant to the music. In one track, Sea of Cartilage, a sample of an interview is played over a breakdown which would probably be dull if the sample was left out, which is a fine example of how these samples help the music, rather than hinder it.

The production is tight, though a possible improvement would be an audible bass. The absolute pinnacle of brutal death metal. Get this album right now.

Highlights: The Saw and Carnage Done, Meticulous Invagination, Nemesis

I gotta say I've always been an avid Aborted fan, and when I heard there latest stuff I was very dissapointed to see there direction there going in now. But I actually went to my local record store and picked this album up and it is somthing else. This is what goregrind should sound like. Not the 10,000 poser bands you can find on myspace, each with there own shitty gimmick and senseless songs. Aborted have brilliant musicianship, Amazing vocals, and most importantly originality.

Aborted create heavy as all hell music at blazing fast speeds and tempos. They still incorperate some of there newer stylings on this record, throwing a solo in here or there. But they pull it off, in between the chaos of each track and little melodic moment is here for you to desperatly try to pull to safety untill They come back in and drown you in goregrind destruction.

There are many tracks on here that are amazing. Meticulous Invagination, the opening track starts with a devious soundclip "the doctor is in", and BAM kicks into psychoticly fast riffing and excellent blast beat drumming as Sven holds this great scream down. Another favorite of mine is "Medical Deviance", whch begins with a note that goes up and down the fret board, and continues getting slowly faster. Plenty of hormonics, which any death metal band needs to be to be considered great. I also love the sound clips on this album, some are even inserted 2 minutes in, like on "Sea of Cartilage".

The intrumentals are second only to the vocals on this album. Sven is such a great vocalist, the best thing is he dosen't have to do anything special really. He dosen't waste his time doing those god damn played out pig squeals, instead he sings in one voice the entire album which is good enough and heavy enough for me. A good mix of highs and lows at the same time here or there as well make for killer vocals. The lyrics on this album are some of the most originall I have ever read. Revolving around medical murders, and the horrors of surgery, finally a new topic instead of necrophelia! A metal first for all brutal bands!

All around, Aborted are an extremely tight unit. I was extremely impressed with this entire album, and wish they continued on this path. Sadly they are trying to pull off the melodic death metal thing, which is working so well for them. I hope they return to goregrind where they truly belong.

‘The Doctor is in….’ – the first four words uttered at the beginning of ‘Goremageddon’. And so begins the bludgeoning punters. I’m not the greatest ‘Gore-metal’ fanatic around, mainly because most of it is rather second rate when you compare it too classic era ‘Carcass’. It takes a good ‘gore’ band to make me sit up and take notice. Fortunately, Belgium’s own ‘Aborted’ have done just that.

I first came across ‘Aborted’ back in 2000 via their seconds disc ‘Purity’ released on Goodlife Recordings. Solid, yet entirely unspectacular was my appraisal of their sound. Along with some rather typical, less than appealing artwork I can’t say I was sold on the band.

In 2003, ‘Aborted’ are an entirely different proposition. Sure, the cover art work is completely cheesy, over the top shock value for the kids but with a clever little title like ‘Goremageddon’ and it’s sub-title ‘The Saw and the Damage Done’ I not only detected a certain level of black humor within but a very healthy nod in the direction of their main influences, the aforementioned ‘Carcass’. The similarities in titles is interesting – Carcass not only used the title/subtitle word play with ‘Necroticism: Discanting the Insalubrious’ but Aborted even kept the Neil Young theme linked with Carcass, just as they did with their word play on ‘Keep On Rotting in the Free World’. I bet you my gangrenous left limb that it’s entirely intentional!

Whatever the deal, it is clear that ‘Aborted’ have upped the ante on ‘Goremageddon’, displaying a brutality and intricate diversity throughout the 11 blood splattered tracks written here. Call it ‘Gore-Metal’, whatever you like, but straight up punters, this is brutal death metal that combines the influences of all of your very favorite genre defining acts – vicious slices of Morbid Angel, Dismember, the mighty Suffocation and Entombed. Oh yeah..don’t forget Carcass - Particularly the ‘Heartwork’ era. The faster, speed oriented riffage laid down here reminds me a lot of the sharp, clinical, clean riff work of Bill Steer and Co. I am also a big wrap for ‘Goremageddon’s’ more melodious moments, especially in the tasteful lead work that breaks up the speed play and adds a rather mature extension to their sound.

All this has been enhanced by one of the most stunning death metal productions I’ve heard since Death’s ‘Human’. The man responsible is Jacob Hansen who has previous worked with ‘Illdisposed, Iniquity and ‘Hatesphere’ among others. I, along with many others have held his production qualities in high regard and ‘Goremageddon’ confirms his status as one of Europe’s leading death metal producer. This album is brutally heavy; it has a deep, dark cavernous bottom end and guitar sound to crush skulls. I suspect Jacob’s diary to be rather full after the competition wrap their puss-infested ears around this disc.

Lyrically, I believe (because I don’t have them on my copy) that ‘Aborted’ have streamlined their content slightly and moved away from your regular splatter/hack/slash/dice/slice style themes. Good move I say – such lyrics have literally been done to death. Instead ‘Goremageddon’ retains a more controlled ‘medical’ approach while incorporating the serial killer, psychological and religious fanaticism concepts. Good fun indeed.

With a video addition for the opening track, the Ted Bundy inspired ‘Meticulous Invagination’ and some tasty medical samples (in typical Necroticism homage) that lead a few of the tracks, ‘Goremageddon’ should appeal to all fans of the brutal Death sound. The best thing to come out of Belgium since…well, since ever! Breakout the Hacksaws punters…Aborted will carve you up!

now lets get one thing sorted straight from the off.

Far from finding overtly gorey lyrics and subject matter "extreme" or "controversial", I find stuff like this, mainly due to the bands taking themselves way way too seriously and turning into a joke, all rather slightly immature as the vast majority of gore bands end up sounding. That is unless they try to sound like Carcass so much it's obvious to even folk-music fans.

Where the likes of Exhumed and Impaled have been content to pass themselves off as virtual Carcass-tribute bands, in comparison, Aborted - whilst they do have some of Carcass' inevitable trademarks - are far more content in occasionally letting their influences show but not letting said influences run the show & inevitably detract from the music.

When I first listened to this album, I pretty much approached it from the perspective of an "extreme metal fan" as opposed to someone with maybe a slightly sceptical impression (due to the strong gore presence), and I was actually quite pleasantly surprised.
Even if you're more anti-gore or such than I am, there is still more than enough on this small round piece of plastic, and of higher a quality, than any Exhumed or other OTT-serious gore band I've heard so far.

Maybe it's due to the slightly-retro feel of the riffage or just the adrenaline that the music instills in the listener, but there's just something about this music that if I was any good with words whatsoever, I'd attempt to describe it's appeal.

In my opinion, if there wasn't already Gorerotted out there doing their own (very much tongue-in-cheek) brand of gore, then quite frankly I'd have to install Aborted as mandatory proverbial "top dogs" in the genre.

Part of the appeal for me I guess is the fact that, unlike a lot of gore/ gore-grind/ death-metal bands that think to combat 'melodic death metal' you have to go to the complete extreme of making your music so amelodic and inaccessible that it just ends up pretty much turning to white noise; this music actually has just enough accessibility to allow you into it's perverse underground lair whilst still retaining more than enough brutality that any self-respecting metalhead could need.

This album has quite possibly the most appropriate title ever. Well, one of them, at any rate. It's 35 minutes of hacking, slashing nastiness that, despite the band's obvious intention to do nothing but kick people's faces in, never descends to the level of "ugga mugga blurgh" stupidity that infests this particular subgenre. Gore metal done correctly can be quite amazing, and Aborted has achieved this with Goremageddon.

Beginning with an appropriate sample from Hellraiser 2 - Hellbound, the death machine bursts into action with the rapid-fire blasting of "Meticulous Invagination", a loving tribute to everyone's favourite misogynistic psychopath Ted Bundy. Far from being a mindless string of detuned rumbling with tick-tock blasting, the song shifts through numerous forms of brutal violence - there's plenty of juiced up thrash riffs to be found here, as well as a spectacular harmonized solo.

"Parasitic Flesh Resection" is a two minute kick in the pants, and then the album's quasi-title-track "The Saw And The Carnage Done" arrives to inflict major internal damage. This song contains numerous riffs that would have fit on any of Dark Angel's 80's masterpieces, blended with well-placed bursts of blasting. And groove. Yes, groove, in the sense that it makes you want to headbang, not in the sense of moronic hardcore kids attempting death metal. Sven's vocal belches range from a gut-rumbling gurgle to a pained scream, but he never descends into overly low pitched spewing or tormented chipmunk screeches.

Did I mention solo's? There's plenty of them here. It's obvious that these guys are very much enraptured by Carcass's use of harmonic lead breaks, and they're quite adept at showing it off. "Ornaments Of Derision" in particular features a jaw-dropping series of warbling shred-work in the midst of a frantic death metal attack. The other standout would have to be "Sanguine Verses (...Of Extirpation), which is where they drop all semblance of restraint and simply go for the jugular.

The slipcase version also includes a cover of Carcass's "Carnal Forge", which fits in quite nicely with the rest of the album. It's not a carbon copy either, as they chose to make up their own solo's, which aren't quite as killer as the leads on the original, but are still quite excellent nonetheless. The lyrics, as expected, cover all sorts of disgusting pathological topics, from cannibalism to fecal infestations to serial killers. Even if you generally regard brutal death metal as a ridiculously oversaturated genre devoid of interesting ideas (dog knows I certainly do), it's awfully refreshing to hear a band like Aborted pick up where the pioneers of this style left off and inject it with some fresh ideas. Highly recommended.