Connect with us

Album Review

Aborted – “TerrorVision” [Album Review]

What we have here is eleven of the finest, grandest death metal/grindcore tracks you’ll come across this year; there isn’t a dud on Aborted’s TerrorVision.

Published

on

Aborted have been honing their craft across two decades. Since 1995, the band has gone through members like a child tearing through a bag of sweets; vocalist Sven de Caluwé has remained the one constant throughout. It’s a testament to his staying power and vision that TerrorVision might just be Aborted’s best record yet.

Like a fine wine, Aborted’s style has subtly shifted over time. Starting life as a more straightforward grindcore outfit, slowly but surely more detail has found its way into the group’s sound. They now straddle the line between grindcore, traditional death metal, and technical death, which takes an even grander path on TerrorVision. A quick glance towards the track listing below hints at the theme of grandeur and the operatic; “Squalor Opera”, “Exquisite Covinous Drama”, and “A Whore D’oeuvre Macabre” offer a taste of the more sophisticated approach within TerrorVision.

As has been tradition for Aborted since 2008’s Strychnin.213, the album opens with a foreboding intro: this time, “Lasciate Ogne Speranza” creeps in with quiet piano, which quickly builds into layers of dark ambient and noise. “Terrorvision” subsequently rips this apart with potent death metal, topped by a terrifying, career-defining vocal performance from Sven. Such is the calibre upheld by the rest of the record. Sven’s delivery throughout is phenomenal, with his characteristic maniacal shrieks counterbalanced expertly by the most guttural of lows.

Check out Aborted’s brilliant video for “Vespertine Decay” below.


Complementing the devastating vocals, the riffs are shockingly heavy, shifting between breakneck pace and the slower chunkier sides of death metal with ease. There are breakdowns and solos aplenty, too, such as the one in early highlight “Squalor Opera” – the solo is especially dark and tasty, a credit to Mendel bij de Leij’s effortless style. As the track slows down towards its end, burly riffs are thrown into your face for a different kind of extreme – just one example of the dynamics that Aborted employ so well.

This is the work of a band who has mastered its craft. Though each track follows in similar fashion, there is never a dull moment. From the infectious catchiness of “Deep Red”, to the guest performances from death metal royalty Seth Siro Anton (SepticFlesh), Julien Truchan (Benighted), and Sebastian Grihm (Cytotoxin), I cannot fault a single second of this masterpiece.

There isn’t a dud on TerrorVision. What we have here is eleven of the finest, grandest death metal/grindcore tracks you’ll come across this year. TerrorVision never suffers from a drop in form throughout its 45-minute runtime, and every second is pure carnage. You won’t want to put the record down, even after your 50th listen. TerrorVision may just be the best metal album of 2018.

Check out the gruesome lyric video for the title track “Terrorvision”.


TerrorVision Track Listing:

01. Lasciate Ogne Speranza
02. Terrorvision
03. Farewell to the Flesh
04. Vespertine Decay
05. Squalor Opera
06. Visceral Despondency
07. Deep Red
08. Exquisite Covinous Drama
09. Altro Inferno
10. A Whore D’oeuvre Macabre
11. The Final Absolution

Run Time: 45:00
Release Date: September 21, 2018
Record Label: Century Media Records

Trending