Aborted - Global Flatline

“Global Flatline” is the seventh album from Belgium-based death metal band Aborted. This album is the first with two new members, one on drums (Ken Bedene) and the other on guitar (Mike Wilson). It also features guest vocals from four other great bands. Appearing on one track each are Julien Truchan of Benighted, Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder, Keijo Niinimaa of Rotten Sound and Jason Netherton of Misery Index. Not that Aborted vocalist Sven de Caluwé needs the help. He and the rest of Aborted tear shit up on “Global Flatline.” The guests are just icing on the cake. I was happy to be able to pick out Julien on track 3 before knowing he was on the album. I just reviewed the Benighted album last week so I recognized him.

If you were to look at “Global Flatline” in the music store, you might see the ravenous zombies on the cover and their extreme logo and band name and immediately jump to the conclusion that this is just another stock death metal album full of paint-by-numbers deathgrind. I myself have been guilty of making that assumption with bands in the past. That’s because there are a lot of mediocre albums like that out there, and I’ve been burned many times. So let me put your mind at (un)ease and assure you this is anything but stock. Yeah, it’s pretty brutal, though, it doesn’t keep a breakneck pace all that often actually; it mixes up tempos and really keeps things interesting. There are the expected death-style leads, but also leads like you might hear in a more melodic death metal. There was even a bit of piano in there on one track. Whatever they happen to be doing at the moment Aborted is still kicking you in the face the whole time.

The vocals as you may expect (particularly given the guests) are all of the harsh variety. They run the gamut of extreme metal styles (though I don’t recall hearing anything particularly high pitched, it was mostly mid-to-low) and are all performed and mixed perfectly for my tastes. The production sounds great yet still manages to sound raw. There is a complexity to the songs that I don’t normally expect from this style which makes me love this album even more. There, I’ve gone and said it. I love this album. 2012 is still young yet, but “Global Flatline” could easily be one of the death metal albums to beat this year. Check this album out now.