Aborted – The Haematobic EP
This is my first exposure to this band, and never really figured I’d bother at all, but here we are. This is a 6 song MCD, 4 studio and 2 live, which also includes 4 bonus live video tracks. Aborted, to no ones surprise, play Gore soaked Death Metal. There is a Carcass influence to some of this in the writing, but the guttural vocals speak more to the inspiration, or rather contamination, from bands a bit more mundane. There is a second raspier vocalist who helps reinforce Carcass vibe though when he comes in. There is a lot of energy to these tracks, the tempos are mixed up pretty well, and they can write a good hook when they want to. If this is a style you can really get behind, “The Haematobic EP” does a solid job of it and there are things here I like. In final judgment though there are too many cliché’s for me personally to get that excited. The deep low vocals are all too familiar, and the production while loud and powerful is a bit too clean for my tastes. This was given to me for review because of my affection for some of the Razorback Records releases. The two big differences between this and some of those, as I see it anyway, is that bands like Splatterhouse or County Medical Examiners come across as not taking themselves too seriously and Aborted doesn’t. The other is that the production isn’t sterilized like this is, it’s raw and dirty and has some character. This production is indistinguishable from a million other bands. I didn’t flat out hate this, which is what I expected, but at the same there was nothing about this that would lead me to be able to pick them out of the crowd either. The energy is there, and for the fan the extras on the disc are probably worth it, but it just didn’t feel like anything new to me. – Scott
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