If you’re a fan of the brutal death scene, you’ve likely heard of Aborted Fetus. These Russians have been honing their craft since 2000, and have always seemed to hover just on the outer edge of the genre trying to really break out as one of the better known of the bunch. Brutal death has long been one of my favorite genres, and though I see their name pop up quite often I haven’t found myself with any of their albums. Though they’ve been around for quite a while, this is actually only their 4th LP, with the early part of their career marked mainly by splits and EPs.
Aborted Fetus play a very Devourment/Cranial Engorgement/98% of Comatose Music bands style of brutal death (anyone want to foster a guess what label they’re on???). It’s the gurgly, brutal death vocal style and the slammy down-tuned guitars that fans of the style know and love. There’s not a lot of variation here, but a nice touch to a number of the songs is a well-placed guitar solo that keeps the monotony down and shows this bunch actually have some talent to bring to the table; check out the one at the 1:10 mark of the second track “Buried Alive”. The next track, “Hanged on the Hook by the Rib”, starts out with a nice loping chug riff, which pleasantly adds to the headbangability of this album; and those moments thankfully come quite often on this one.
All in all this is a very solid addition to the Comatose lineup. Another welcome surprise on this one is an album that actually has a solid production, as unfortunately a good number of the bands on what is one of my favorite labels often suffers from annoyingly thin production that takes away from the musical enjoyment. The whole album is a great way to burn a half hour, and should bring a smile to many of you slam-heads out there.
