Russian brutal slammers Aborted Fetus are back with album number 5 and it adds to a pretty good year not just for brutal slammy death metal (Organectomy, Ingested, Manhattan Lovestory), and the always reliable Comatose Music ( Kraanium, Abhorrent Deformity, Kraanium,  Kill Everything, Flesh Hoarder, Posthuman Abomination) also.

I own all but the debut from these guys, but I can safely say they are not a band I reach for immediately when craving this style. They are competent, plenty broodle and bring the slam, and when they lock into a sick slam, it’s plenty satisfying but there isn’t a whole lot that stands out above a solid entry to the genre.

That said, the torturous themes (“Nailed to the Cross”, “Roasted Alive in the Copper Bull’s Stomach”, “Iron Petals of the Blasphemer’s Pear”, “Eaten by Pigs in the Trough”, “Rack of Torment”, etc)  throughout the album is refreshing from the usual misogyny and fecal matter obsessions, even if the music still keeps it in the same predictable realms as their peers, with the exception of “Cradle of Revulsion” which delivers a slower, more restrained 6 minute track to the fray with decent results.

Of the 13 tracks, three are instrumentals (the intro ” The Wind of Agonizing Spirits”, “Flame of Death”, ” Follow into the Darkness”), which is a little unusual for the style,  so the band is at least trying something different. The production is big and beefy and allows the album’s many neck snapping moments like “Drenched Eyes in Boiling Oil”, “Roasted Alive in the Copper Bull’s Stomach” ,”Genital Torture by the Alligator Tongs” to bring the wreckage effectively, but there is nothing here  quite as devastating as anything from Kraanium, Kill Everything‘s Scorched Earth, or Organectomy’s, Domain of the Wretched, my 3 favorite broodle/slam album s of the year so far.

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