The Necrotic Manifesto

This album is a very solid death-grind release from Aborted. Even 7 years after its conception, I still find enjoyment from the relentless riffing and the melodic hooks.

There a few different throwbacks to horror films in this album that added to my overall experience with it, as a fan of horror movies. These insertions do not seem to make the album anymore cheesy than it already is. The cover artwork is very recognizable to me, it is both horrific and ridiculous at the same time and it sets and describes the tone of the album. The music is fast and brutal, but doesn't take itself too seriously.

The album hits very hard with its complex and fast riffing, and the hooks are phenomenal on several tracks. These segments really produce, 'aha moments' that get me involved with the music and often distract me from anything else I am doing. The album is very groovy, filled with relatively mid-paced arpeggios moving the songs up and down, such as on an Enumeration of Cadavers. This is where I think the album excels most, and prevents me from becoming bored while ever listening to it. There are also many breakdowns, I don't consider them tedious in this case and they add to the overall groove and force of the album.

The band displays a lot of talent, with great precision and variety in their playing, not to the same degree as technical death metal- the riffs are not guitar solos, this is still a death grind album. This helps keep the album directed however by not separating itself too much from structure, but doing enough of that so that my listening of the album is accommodated by changing riffs and structures between songs which, when amalgamated create a memorable experience. I always know what this album will sound and feel like when it begins to play, and in this way, it stands out from the Insatanity's of my collection.

On some other notes: The vocals are well done and have both a wide range of growls and screams that fit the music very well, moving with it rather than inserting themselves randomly. There are a good selection of solos placed in the album, they are melodic and always perk my attention. The drum does not rely on blast beats and effectively uses other portions of the kit to provide substance. The production is sufficient, the low frequency noise can be picked apart from the high frequency noise, keeping the album crushing and dynamic.

With that said, the album still has clear flaws, namely wanting more great songs like Necrotic Manifesto and to just spice up some of the less memorable material like The Davidian Descent, that is keeping this from being an absolute classic. The lyrics are also nothing to write home about, revolving around the experience of a serial killer, which is interesting but distasteful at times such as when in Excremental Veracity, which is about loving shit. These issues do not prevent it from being a great listen anyways.

There are definitely good things to say about this, 85 is not an average or just okay score. The more death metal that I listen to, the more I enjoy this album when I come back to it because it separates itself from the crowd and just sounds great.

Favorite songs: Necrotic Manifesto, Excremental Veracity, Of Dead Skin and Decay.

In recent years Aborted has become something of an elite purveyor of a well-rounded modern answer to the death metal question, one that is cognizant of the recent phenomenons of slam, deathcore, tech. death and brutal death while not quite jumping on any or all of those bandwagons completely. It's a paradoxical sense of nuance within a style of metal that eschews the very concept of nuance, and indeed, the resulting sound they display does not come off as anything short of sheer impact, but compared to other bands their sound is a bit more well-rounded and shaped into a fairly digestible smorgasbord of mangled corpse pieces. This story holds truest for their 2014 LP The Necrotic Manifesto, which has a highly theatrical take on their craft, featuring a hodgepodge of classic horror flick samples from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 to the Hellraiser saga functioning as segues between some technically tinged brutality to rival the last couple Pathology albums.

All eight gloves and off from the very beginning as the ensuing cacophony of deep chugging riffs, frenzied tremolo runs, blasting machine gun mayhem and vile shouts takes its cues from the same place where Dying Fetus and Benighted go for their respective lessons in mass grave filling. After a sampled orchestral ditty and a few words from Pinhead, "The Extirpation Agenda" fires with both tubes, blurring the lines between the outer fringes of extreme death metal and the hyper-dissonant modern grindcore sound right from its very onset, and yet somehow making time to settle into occasional galloping grooves. A comparable musical story is told on the title song "The Necrotic Manifesto", blasting away at light speed but soon settling into a thrashing groove riff that provides an almost catchy counterbalance to all the unfettered rage. Varying degrees of sheer brutality to almost slamming groove bridges round out most of the album in a very methodical fashion, with the key focal points being the guitar solo sections, which are both technically masterful yet tasteful and a needed consonant contrast to all the systemic chaos.

Truth be told, despite the guitars occasionally injecting a degree of atmospheric contrast here and there, the place where this album manages to show its greatest degree of textural depth is the vocal interplay. Sven's assortment of shouts, barks, grunts and occasional gurgles have a strong degree of hardcore influence on them, particularly when resorted to a more intelligible, mid-ranged shout. This is most present during the points where things hit breakdown territory, especially on "Your Entitlement Means Nothing", but the sound of multiple vocal tracks crashing against each other makes occasions for this approach on just about every song. The only outright deviation from the formula is on the closing number "Cenobites" where a processed spoken narration makes a few appearances, all but perfectly imitating the stoic and dismissive tone of otherworldly conceit that typifies the speech of the characters in question.

In similar fashion to the last Abominable Putridity offering, Pathology's Lords of Rephaim and Throne Of Reign and recent Dying Fetus, this is an affair in highly processed and compressed brutality. Consequently the sound comes off as a bit mechanical at times, something that is further enhanced by many of these songs following a fairly strict formula that keeps them sounding heavily similar. As an album it's a consistent listen, if not an outright overwhelming experience, with much of the arrangement behind the vocals and lead guitars being fairly uniform and inorganic in feel. It's the sort of album that really hits the listener like a ton of bricks at first strike, but kind of tapers off after repeated plays. It's the sort of album that solidifies one's base, but doesn't quite hit the mark for universal appeal that tends to go with a new classic.

I first became a fan of Aborted upon the release of Global Flatline, and after discovering that I delved into their discography and fell in love, and eagerly awaited the release of this record. It did not disappoint

First of all, the artwork is phenomenal. Here we see a crazy re-imagining of the infamous surgeon from "Goremaggedon" by Par Olofsson, which is every bit as gory, over the top and fun as the music itself. Aborted incorporate more of a grind sound on this album than they did on their last, with plenty of blast beats, furious riffing and inhuman vocals. However this does not mean that they have stepped away from the slightly more melodic sound that was incorporated in Global Flatline. Instead, this album combines all of the brutality and speed of Aborted's earlier work as well as the catchy melodic passages of Global Flatline and produces a beast.

Misanthropy, gore and perversion are the key lyrical elements here, which are standard Aborted themes. Sven's vocal delivery is as varied and crushing as always, ranging from guttural bellows to raspy shouts. Ken Bedene's drumming is phenomenal, the blast beats and double kicks on this album are insane, but not overpowering. He knows to slow down once in a while to stay refreshing and not become boring, as demonstrated on the gloomy DIe Verzweiflung. The guitar tone is thick and clean, and quite honestly perfect for this style of music. It allows the two Guitarists to show f their technical abilities without sounding too clean and polished, and also allows for a crunchy sound in the devastating breakdowns in songs such as Cenobites and Coffin Upon Coffin. The use of samples from horror movies throughout the album is also very fitting and adds even more of a deranged atmosphere to this gory masterpiece of an album

To describe this album is one word: crushing. It is catchy and brutal as hell, and well worth a listen.

This is one of the few albums I was really looking forward to this year. Ever since "Engineering the Dead", Aborted had claimed me as a die hard fan. On each album, they deliver punishing, brutal technical death metal, and this album is no exception. But is that a good or a bad thing? Let's talk about that.

I'll start by talking about the production and overall sound quality. On this album they had Jacob Hansen behind the boards, who had previously worked with Heaven Shall Burn and Volbeat among other artists. He did a fantastic job with this album. The fat guitars and thick drums blend exceptionally well with each other, while the bass guitar is essentially inaudible. I have this issue with almost every extreme metal album, so it could just be me; but with my ears the bass guitar is nonexistent.

On a musical level, well, it's not your average Aborted album. When you put on an Aborted album you know you are going to get awesome, complex heavy riffs with brutal vocals. That's what technical death metal is. However, I had a problem with this album because of that. Aborted took a different approach to this album, giving it a lot more of a deathgrind sound. That means that there are a lot, and I do mean a lot, of blast beats and double bass. Almost all of the drumming is blast beats going as fast as the speed of sound. Now sometimes this is a good thing, but Aborted decided to use these drum techniques in every single song. It makes them all sound the same. A lot of the time it's difficult to distinguish which song is which, making this album tedious to listen to as a whole. Each song on it's own? Fantastic. However I'm not the kind of guy who likes to put their ipod on "shuffle" and see what songs randomly play. I enjoy listening to albums start to finish, and it's hard to do with "The Necrotic Manifesto".

Aborted used to have a recognizable groove that forced you to bang your head, and unfortunately this album lacks that. Hopefully next time, we'll get that back. Overall, I give "The Necrotic Manifesto" a 63% because it definitely isn't a bad album, it's just very repetitive.

The eighth full-length album from Belgian goremongers Aborted, “The Necrotic Manifesto,” is certainly serviceable enough for what it sets out at being, but just lacks the finer elements within that made their previous release as much fun as it was.

Apparently following along nicely from their previous work, which adequately mixed their brutal grinding philosophy with a technical bent and melodic chops, all of which were parts of their sound in different parts of their career, this new seems to follow suit in that tone rather well. The unconscionably brutal riff-work is still in fine form here with a direct leaning to its early days with nods to both grindcore’s scattershot manner of tight, unbridled violence and barely controlled fury with the brutality inherent from a series of sweeping dive-bomb patterns and incessant chugging that are both part of the bands’ signature sound. When it’s all mixed together with the jagged, razor-sharp riffing and pounding rhythm section, the result is a rather frank and brutal assault of traditional rhythms and incessant violence that only this band can deliver and gives this the album’s most familiar moments. As well, there’s a rather direct and noticeable attempt at injecting some frantic and chaotic patterns that really makes the band a stand-out in terms of their brutality at hand getting an even bigger push with the inclusion of so many wild, uncontrollable rhythms thrown into the mix that makes for a wild and exceedingly excessive effort. Still, as the band had begun with on their last album, the melody that was thrown into their brutal stance on the last album is continued here and it really makes for a rather enjoyable ploy to have the two polarizing forces at work within the same album. It adds a lighter atmosphere to the dripping-wet rhythms and makes the sections listenable instead of being so over-the-top bludgeoning that it’s impossible to really enjoy them. So, all told, this one ends up with tight, intense riffing with sweeping dive-bombing patterns, incessant chugging and unbridled violence against touches of melody and sporadic lighter moments for a truly well-rounded and yet entirely cohesive experience. This is due to the remaining elements at play here, with the dexterous, devastating drumming doing all it can to demolish and dismantle the senses with the chaos and speed it plows through these tracks alongside the buzzing bass-lines and severely guttural vocals that provide a lot of extra emphasis on many of these tracks. The drums hit incredibly hard and generate plenty of hard-hitting, devastating patterns that roll through the tracks with blinding, near inhuman speed that recalls full-on drum-machines at times but displays far more sense of melody and timing than such a machine could ever match. The bass is usually really busy in the rhythms making for a rather complex and highly technical display with a series of spindly fills, heavy buzzing chugs and general thumping refrains that add extra meat to the heavy-handed bone that the rest of the band plays with. The vocals, as usual, are manic, intense and highly-varied, ranging from inhuman gurgle-growls to clear mid-register bellowing and hoarse shrieks that further add to a sloppy, wet atmosphere that has been the band’s forte since the beginning with yet another stellar performance here.

As far as the album itself goes, there’s one rather irritating feature throughout which does tend to harm this one overall. The fact that there’s far too much sampled effects, dialog and scores from movies and TV shows in here that they eventually become distracting instead of beneficial to the experience as a whole. This is something rarely attempted by the band for it wasn’t done a lot in their previous albums, but there’s a right way and wrong way to add samples into the music. The right way to go about this is how it was accomplished on the intro, for not only is that the perfect way to introduce audiences to your material by giving them a sense of familiar trappings to ingrate them on what’s to come next, the band manages to choose a wholly appropriate line of dialog to further prepare listeners for what’s to come in the album ahead and therefore scores exceptionally well in terms of what it’s trying to accomplish. The rest of the album is a clear example of what not to do with samples, which is to spread them liberally throughout the album without any real rhyme or reason. The inconsistent nature of choosing them to be either track intros or outros is done without any discernible pattern leading to a wildly-varied attempt even before overlooking the fact that the majority of the samples chosen have no real bearing on the track at hand. That just leaves them with the feeling that the band chose them for what they’re saying, which does have a series of sinister intentions throughout if that’s to be believed but the scattershot approach and wildly-varied themes that don’t tie into what the track’s all about ultimately leave this tactic feeling like an after-thought when it really shouldn’t. Beyond that, the only real issue here is the fact that there’s just way too many tracks on a release like this. It stops being overkill around the tenth track or so, but for a brutal band like this to release an effort with over a dozen tracks is just tired to the point of getting numb to the bludgeoning in the later half with yet another continued assault like the previous ten or so you’ve been exposed to, and then there’s another two more tracks on the release to get through that make this such a trial to get through at certain stages for the music throughout is exceptionally accomplished and well-written bursts of sonic brutality, but the fact that there’s so much of it makes for an exhaustive listen, especially on the second half with an assorted number of rather bland and seemingly uninspired tracks used to beef up the running time on an album already overloaded to start with. That may be the album’s second biggest flaw, where this is usually a much tighter and more consistent act but brings about too many instances of sloppy riffing and uninspired passages that it tends to make a wandering second half even longer.

The first half to this is easily the more consistent of the two parts even with an enjoyable mix between them. Intro ‘Six Feet of Foreplay’ is a serviceable noise-bearing intro with creaking door samples and clanking tools as a creepy child-like tone and sweeping orchestral interlude sweep through the remaining noise, effectively and appropriately setting the stage for the chaos to come. Proper first effort ‘The Extirpation Agenda’ sets off with unrelenting chaotic drum-patterns, screeching guitars and brutal rhythms collide into a frantic, noisy grinder with jagged guitar rhythms and chugging patterns against dexterous, mechanical drumming and furious tempos throughout that emerge from the blistering chaos of the drumming as the raging tempos slice through the frantic and extreme riff-work that incorporate more urgent rhythms and up-tempo ferocity into the guitar patterns that come off nicely in the final half. This chaos is continued in the title track, with crushing, intense riffs collide through battering drumming awash in technically-precise patterns with razor-edged guitars slicing through the chaotic fury around them as the furious energy and maddening vocals match the technicality to be found within the first half as the tempo drops for a melodic undercurrent through the solo section full of dynamic variations and changeovers as the tight, blasting fury is unleashed in the final half, easily one of the better songs in their catalog. Finally, setting up a brutal threesome to start off, ‘An Enumeration of Cadavers’ throws brutal drumming and tight razor-edged riffs bristle forth at a chaotic tempo with blinding drumming and sweeping chugs that bury the notes in a blizzard of tight riffs and indecipherable sweeps that add to the remorseless drum-beats and frantic double-bass patterns against a series of atmospheric sections that injects slight melodies into the fray that continue into the pounding set-up to the extravagant solo section and carries through to the final half with jaded rhythms, frantic guitar patterns and barreling drumming, making for one walloping start. The sampled movie effects and dialog of ‘Your Entitlement Means Nothing’ turns into blinding, scaling drumming and whiplash riffing whipping out a series of extremely tight, high-speed riffs creating a scathing, chaotic sense of brutality against the mechanical drum-patterns and melodic leads that slow down the later half against the chugging rhythms and pounding drum attack, slightly falling off from the blistering intro. Things pick back up with another stellar collection of back-to-back tracks as ‘The Davidian Deceit’ scores well with immediate jagged riff-work and pounding drumming that barrels along with brutal, raging rhythms that continue through the full-on drumming attacks filled with dexterous pounding, remorseless double-bass blasts and dynamic fills that match the equally brutal jagged guitar riffing that switches from intense fluid picking to tight, brutal chugging that injects some melodic sweeping into the solo section before heading back to the brutal riffing and pounding drumming in an extended series of technical sweeps and melodic leads before a sampled fade-out. This is followed with the appropriate first-single ‘Coffin Upon Coffin,’ as the slow, dirty riff-work and dexterous drumming alongside bristling melodies immediately turns into brutal blasting with tight chugging, frantic patterns and intense double-bass blasting that keeps the razor-wire riffing pattern as frantic and jagged as possible with sharp-edged rhythms and plenty of full-throttle blasting drumming that slows down into a melody-filled solo section augmented by the harmonious guitar leads that quickly return into full-throttle blast territory to weave through tight chugging and more mid-tempo guitar work in the chaotic final half, marking two more stellar tracks together and ending the first half with a lot to really like about it.

While this is where the problems in the album do start popping up, there’s still a lot to like in the second half. ‘Chronicles of Detruncation’ feels like many of the better tracks up-top with immediate blasting and intense riff-work collide into a frantic, mid-tempo chug with dexterous drumming and brutal patterns against the mid-tempo rhythms that continue through the rather frantic guitars that get overshadowed by the blindingly brutal drum-blasts that carry through the tight chugging and relentless tempos that continue through the blinding drum-blasts and chaotic rhythms that allow the jagged riffing to cut through with a sense of viciousness that anchors the melodic leads against the brutality with a dexterous solo section amid tight chugging blasts, brutal rhythms and a frantic finale, and really should’ve been placed there but makes the transition into the following tracks a little easier. ‘Sade & Libertine Lunacy’ is one of the problematic tracks, as the tight, relentless blasting and a mid-paced series of jagged riffing that allows the brutal blasting into the forefront which the jagged guitar rhythms work over into a series of brutal sweeps and chugs through the main rhythm that features enough blasting drumming and chaotic razor-wire riffing to influence the brutal speed-drenched patterns into far more chaotic patterns and buzzing riff-work in the second half with a melodic solo section breaking up the brutality momentarily as the chaotic buzzing, frantic drumming and intense guitar riffs carry this through the second half into the strong finale ends up feeling like many of their other tracks and feels like a filler track. The utterly inappropriate ‘Die Verzweiflung,’ with its eerie droning riff-work and chaotic samples against steady riffing, dexterous double-bass and simple chords along the droning, crawling pace with discordant sweeps, tight background chugging and low vocals over the slow, sweeping patterns into an extended fade-out, has no place on the album and really should’ve been worked over more as the second half of the track should’ve been used as the starting point for another track. Thankfully, this worrisome two-fer is fixed with ‘Excremental Veracity,’ as the tight, crushing drumming and razor-wire chug-riffing that keeps the chaotic patterns along the up-tempo pace with the stuttering rhythms and intense patterns along the series of frantic double-bass blasts and chugging riffs that barrel through the up-tempo grinding pace in the mid-section with a strong lead-in to the solo section with melodic tones and steady drumming that leads into frantic blasting, tight chords and buzzsaw riffing that sweeps through the final half with a strong chaotic touch in the fade out feels like good times after the two missed tracks. Another going-through-the-motions effort, ‘Purity of Perversion,’ starts off strong with steady rolling drumming and mid-tempo riffs roll through the mid-tempo riff-work with a series of sweeping drum-patterns and chaotic blasts thrown into the burgeoning pace that brings iin more chaotic and utterly relentless riffing with blindingly chaotic drum-patterns and sweeping bass-lines into the slower, mid-range section with chugging riff-work and simpler riffing into a strong solo section with strong melodic work and simple drumming that works back into the chaotic buzzsaw riffing and blasting drum-patterns in the finale, but by the end it doesn’t do anything special and just feels like any other track here. The same applies to ‘Of Dead Skin & Decay’ where the sampled dialog leads into crashing drumming and rolling double-bass with tight, dense chugging rhythms and chaotic blasting with up-tempo and bouncy rhythms along the restrained and serviceable mid-section patterns that work in steady, streamlined riffing along the blasting drum-work that adds extra intensity against the raging riff-work as a series of melodic sweeps leads into the solo section augmented by vicious blasting that carries through the tight, intense chugging and drumming that leads into an extended discordant, swirling guitar fade-out that tends to run it’s course quite early. Thankfully, one of the better efforts is saved for last with the epic ‘Cenobites’ as the bleed-through discordant, swirling guitar intro which drags into tight, frantic blasting and thrashing, up-tempo riff-work that adds an extra speed element to the pace with the fluid rhythms meshing with the controlled chaotic drum-patterns that leads into a sweeping series of stuttering, technical rhythms that adds ethereal keyboards into the raging, tight guitars and blasting drumming that continues through the second half with ferocious speeds and intense patterns while the melodic guitar swirling and lighter patterns bring about a finer sense of calm with the lessened pace leading into the dynamic solo section atop dexterous double-bass fills and melodic sections against the droning riff-work that leads through the extended finale, making for one last impressive blast to send this one out on a rather higher note.

One more time into the breach for these brutal mongers, and it serves them well that this is as good as it is against their vast and enjoyable catalog, for this readily contains all the elements that make this band so enjoyable and entertaining. This has the trademark relentless and brutality that were originally a huge focus in their sound, there’s doses of melody at the right moment, and the fact that it sweeps the two together with all the subtlety of a barbed-wire-spitting chainsaw is a strong feature, though the fact that there’s a few faults at work here does hold this back from becoming as impactful as its predecessor. All this makes for a solid and highly-enjoyable if not as immediate release.

Two years after a fine return to form with their critically lauded Global Flatline, Belgium's death metal machine Aborted returns with another slab of gore soaked technicality. The Necrotic Manifesto is the band's eighth full length album since their formation in 1995 and serves to bridge the gap between blistering fast yet technical death metal and chugging stomps and squeals. If aren't really sure what to expect, then brace yourself for technical, razor sharp guitar riffs, deep throaty, gravelly growls and insanely fast, breakneck drumming, but with some modern touches around the edges.

The first few track hearken to the glory days of Aborted, when they played fast and brutal death metal with no frills. After a brief intro, “The Extirpation Agenda” blasts off with abandon featuring fast paced trem picking and precisely blasting drums, going through a variety of tempos, while the album's title track and “An Enumeration of Cadavers” blast away with grinding drums and razor sharp riffing. Despite all of the blasting and technicality, the band finds a way to incorporate the rhythmic chugging of their middle era and some surprisingly melodic lead guitar lines without completely losing their alluring balls out heaviness.

By the time you reach the middle of the album, the lazy chugging and squeals begin to overpower the technical style of riffing. The drums stay incredibly proficient, but the guitars just drag the rest of the music down. “Entitlement Means Nothing”, edgy title aside, is one of the worst offenders. The overly modern sound bogs down the music and the band's trademark technical flair is zero. The same with “Coffin Upon Coffin” as the band opts for chug-chug, squeal instead of the razor bladed feistiness we've come to adore. Frankly, after the auditory reaming I received during the first few tracks, it's downright disappointing.

If anything, The Necrotic Manifesto could be seen as a mix of the band's tried and true death metal with their chugging dances with deathcore that presented on Strychnine.213 and the somewhat melodic metalcore leanings of The Archaic Abattoir. Don't get me wrong, this is nowhere near the abomination that Strychnine.213 was, but there are traces of the lazy chugs throughout. I really don't get how Aborted can sound so lazy at times and other times just completely have their shit together. Listen to “Excremental Veracity”, with its solid mix of caveman stomps and blistering grind and you'll wonder how the hell the band let things like “Die Verzweiflung” through the cracks.

I do have to say, that even with all of the modern frills, it's impressive that vocalist Sven de Caluwé, the only original member left, has kept the band's base sound intact through so many lineup changes. Sure they have been steadily reaching towards a more modern sound but it's still a sound that is decidedly Aborted. While Global Flatline was a step back towards the Aborted of old, I feel like The Necrotic Manifesto takes them back towards the modern sound of The Archaic Abattoir and Strychnine.213. It's a sound that's not fully rooted in the band's razor sharp, technical blasting but it's not fully rooted in the chugging deathcore style either. It's a solid mix of the two styles and, despite a few glaring turds in the pile, The Necrotic Manifesto is a decent addition to Aborted's discography.

Written for The Metal Observer.