Every time a new Aborted album comes around, I can liken it to another output from Napalm Death, in which the question inevitably gets asked:  these dudes have been around forever, can they still bring the pain with the same piss ‘n vinegar of previous outputs?  I can say that for Retrogore the answer is a resounding yes, as these Belgians have been honing their brutal/death metal craft for around 20 years with now their NINTH full length album, in addition to a number of EPs.

Pointless album intros are one of my biggest annoyances in the world of extreme metal, but the one that starts out Retrogore is one of the rare ones that helps to set the mood.  It’s a 51 second, carnival-music-played-on-an-old-record-player sounding intro that is oddly haunting in its tone.  That is right before the title track bursts through the speakers with all that Aborted glory that can’t help but make metal fans smile.  It’s a riff-filled, drum skin punishing output that all Aborted fans will feel right at home with.  You even get a nice little guitar solo 2/3 of the way through the song that show these Belgians are not just all double bass and blast beats.  This continues with the awesomely titled “Cadaverous Banquet” and “Whoremageddon”.

Almost all of the songs hover around the 3-4 minute mark, with little sameness creeping in and each track able to stand on its own as there are ton of tempo changes that help to keep things fresh.  Some other track standouts are the groove filled “Termination Redux” and closer “In Avernus”, for a total run time of just over 43 minutes.

The star of the show as usual is vocalist Sven de Caluwé, whose hollow, almost digital sounding timbre that he has to his death growl is instantly recognizable, and has always been one of the most distinctive in the entire genre.  He bounces seamlessly between that and a higher pitched scream that helps to keep things interesting and add another layer to the sound.  Drummer Ken Bedene has been with the band since Global Flatline, and his fills and stop start ability is impressive with all that is going on in the album.  Guitarist Mendel bij de Leij is back on this one as well, and is joined by newcomer Ian Jekelis (ex – Abigail Williams, Abysmal Dawn), who really helps to add a nice technical touch and up the songwriting quality tremendously.  Bassist JB van der Wal is back as well but his bass is a bit buried in the mix.

But with that being said the production is again phenomenal, and the artwork is quite trippy as well.  I want to point out that their recent EP, Termination Redux, was only released on vinyl and digitally, but is included with Retrogore as a 2 CD special edition along with the addition of 2 bonus tracks.  That’s the version I will be purchasing, and might be worth the extra cash for the Aborted uberfans out there.

[Visit the band's website]

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