‘The standard of composition is high, like a band tied to a major label in the late 1990s with a brief to replicate the sales figures of Nine Inch Nails,’ noted Scream Blast Repeat of Aborym’s Hostile album from 2021. It seemed the former industrial black metal giants had buried their past in pursuit of a direction more akin to a grunge act toying with The Young Gods and Massive Attack. We liked it. It was brave. The old fanbase left them years ago, which meant they had fewer people to offend. But it also painted a picture of a group with nowhere else to go. So, what is their next step? Simple. Go back to what made them loved by the critics and tastemakers, even if that circle was always small.
There’s no doubt they mean it when they say they’re back in black bullet belts. The opening twenty seconds of ‘Red Latex Baphomet’ pulsate like Fear Factory racing through a cover of Deathspell Omega. Fabban learned to sing on the last two records; he growls and shrieks here as if it’s 1999 again. They wanted to write industrial rock in the 2010s, but this is industrial black metal as celebrated by Terrorizer magazine at the turn of the century. Buried somewhere in this madness is a dance beat. By contrast, precise alternate picking is the staple guitar technique of old-school death metal and second-wave black metal, and Munholy (lead six-stringer) does justice to both on the title track. They don’t shy away from the synths either. Listen to the static buzz underneath the amp distortion.
Fortunately, Aborym emerged from Italy in the black metal scene when tuneless guitars that sound like nail filers were unheard of in the genre. You can hear the tremolo patterns as clearly as the chunky palm-muted rhythms. The “urgh” at the beginning of ‘Enshrined in Putrefaction’ is as grotesque as its title. Relentless headbanging will leave your neck aching by the end. You’ve earned the right to wear arm spikes if you write music as evil and as pompous as this. The industrial mechanisms enhance the thrill rather than dull it. Fabban and the boys are not averse to time changes that’ll prompt a finger on the chin either. Skank beats and harmonic minor solos go together like raw steaks on hot griddles.
So, is this a nostalgia trip or a true black metal death trip? Side A points towards a triumphant reinvention. ‘The Afterlife’ contains more guitar triplets than a deathcore band with a free Pro Tools licence. But the mix is lively rather than sterile, and the post-punk guitar shapes put a different face on this brutality. Even the song ‘Creatures of the Night’ avoids the ghoulish clichés and terrifies the listener through sustained violence rather than gimmickry. If anything, it thrives on a militaristic rhythm section rather than a demonic voice, and they understand that guitar solos won’t alter the mood. Likewise, ignore the crass title of ‘Satiate with My Sperm’, and you can enjoy the Morbid Angel riffing with a serious expression.
The only criticism here is the ratio of industrial to black metal. Aborym used to get this right at 50-50, but they operate at 20 percent industrial and 80 percent blackened death metal here. Where are those daring tangents that they and Dødheimsgard used to throw at you at the height of their chaos? To be fair, ‘The Crescendo of Demise’ is a good stab at blackened doom metal before it gives in to the urges to batter the listener. There are some great ideas here, from choirs hidden in the background to sudden modulations that land like My Dying Bride at their best. And who’d have thought we’d hear a martial gallop in the music of Aborym in the 2020s? But it needs more than just open-string chugging from the guitars to turn it into a future classic. Repeat listens to this track should be more fruitful when you realise what they want to achieve.
Inevitably, Aborym are at their most confident when they embrace gothic rock and corrupt it with Kreator. ‘Altar of the Lacerated’ contains enough cobwebs and lipstick-strewn cheeks to earn a video, yet the double-timing drums and Wagnerian tones are pure evil. This is what it looks like when you stare into the abyss and smile at what you see. The eerie instrumental of the closing effort, ‘Voci Notturne’, is a reminder that this group will always do things on their own terms. The industrial percussion and muffled noise loops would sound at home in a Blumhouse production, yet most of the action feels ready-made for their rehabilitation at next year’s Hellfest.
We should never complain when an extreme metal band returns from decades of wandering astray to embrace the things that made them so compelling. They didn’t need to make drastic changes from their 2021 direction, but Aborym can claim this new transformation as a success rather than a regression.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 25/09/2026
Record Label: Avantgarde Music
Standout tracks: Metachaos; Enshrined in Putrefaction; Altar of the Lacerated
Suggested Further Listening: The Amenta – Revelator (2021), Belphegor – The Devils (2022), Omega Infinity – The Anticurrent (2023)