Band names in Metal are always something to stir up a little bit of shock, laughter or amazement in the workplace. The general conversation being something along the lines of “so who are you going to see tonight?” this will be followed by a pause before deciding whether it is really appropriate followed by “Oh, I’m going to see Dying Fetus”. Your inevitable response will be met with some pretty priceless faces and fills you with a sort of egotistical glee that they will never know the pleasures of Metal’s underground.

One such band with an ever striking name are the Belgium titans of the Modern Death Metal scene Aborted. With a career spanning over 20 years Aborted have carved a grotesque niche in the Death Metal world, their infectious tones and occasional Hellraiser homage has seen their brand spread like an infectious fog, waking those to the scent of decaying Modern Death Metal. Their career has been pretty well star studded since the release of 2003’s Goremageddon where they really made a name for themselves. Following this has been a string of releases coming together to birth the bands 10th full length release 2018’s TerrorVision, now come, we have such sights to show you.

After the annoyingly fitting horror influenced introduction Lasciate Ogne Speranza, we cascade into the tomb of liquefied limbs that is TerrorVision. The album boasts an atypical Modern Death Metal sound that enters the listeners ears like petrol followed by the flame, culminating in explosive gut wrenching Death Metal. The ludicrous musicianship is only backed by an esteemed production, allowing each hellish impurity to be pinpointed, examined and dissected. The guitars race and swirl in mayhemic structures that batter the listener, whilst the drums and bass equally gallop at a destructive rate.

Vocally this album is given re-animated terror, the sweeping range of Aborted mainstay Sven De Caluwé cannot be denied, a true frontman who brings the band together as a demonic force with shrieks and growls from the fiery pits. This album isn’t without its war chants either, Deep Red, Altro Inferno and epic closing piece The Final Absolution are anthems to be held in high regard making this decennial album a landmark in the bands 20 year war. Aborted summon this necromantic sickness of modernity in a way that is challenged by very few, rather than weeping into the hands of the old school Aborted grab the future and disembowel it.

TerrorVision if nothing else has made me do one thing, want to go back and listen to Aborted’s discography this record feels like a 10th album should, big, epic, nasty, heavy and forward thinking. A truly macabre prayer to the unholy malformed creatures of Death Metal this is the bar that Modern Death Metal bands need to work towards and even presents itself as a sort of benchmark for the Brutal Death Metal community excelling as a base for Death Metals heavier side. Being as pounding and ferocious as TerrorVision is it feels like an album to ground the Death Metal community to all that is perfectly grisly about the genre.

(8/10 George Caley)

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