It’s been a good year for black metal for me so far; Thyrane, Lugubrum, Grand Belial’s Key, Oblomov, Dark Funeral, Leviathan’s 35 split CD’s and this superb effort all have made black metal interesting for me again.
Frankly, I’ve never really delved to far into Aborym’s discography, so this album came as a surprise to me. What I do know is that former vocalist, the ‘legendary’ Attila Csihar (now of Mayhem) was the singer for this Italian industrialized black metal outfit, but has been replaced by Prime Evil (Amok, Mysticum), though he does make a guest appearance on ‘Man Bites God’. Also, the programmed drums have been replaced by Bard Faust (Emperor, Zyklon, Scum, Thorns).
What really hit me was the perfect blending of Emperor styled symphonic and majesty with mechanical, industrialized precision and robotic coldness. It reminded me a little of Norway’s Lunaris, but with more hate. The mix of orchestration and mechanization is no more perfectly delivered than the amazing opening salvo of ‘Ruinrama Colossal’ and the epic title track elsewhere on the album, Aboyrm, deliver a mix of ravaged, post nuclear, programmed cybernetic atmospheres (‘Armageddon’, ‘A Dog Eat Dog World’, ‘Suffer Catalyst’, ‘Man Bites God’, ‘I Reject’) and harrowing black metal (‘Ruinrama Kolossal’, ‘Disgust and Rage’, ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’), all of which are delivered with clinical, surgical production. Prime Evil is serviceable with his mix of blacked rasp and distorted robotic chant, but he certainly isn’t a vital cog in the album’s overall tone.
This album may prompt me to go back and check out Fire Walk With Us and With No Human Intervention, but they had better be pretty special to top this.
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