Malfeitor Fabban
Member
Well, that's a tough one. For the first time I really have no idea of how
and what to tell you of this album. Not because I have no idea on it, but
because many could find it a complete masterpiece, but most will find it
completely unacceptable.
Some words about Aborym: they're now on their third full-length, coming from
a long career, since 1992 when Malfiteor Fabban, the bass player and
mastermind of the band, founded it. The previous two albums (Kali Yuga
Bizarre in 1999 and Fire Walk With Us! in 2001) showed a black metal band
deeply influenced by electronic and industrial sonorities, even if still
linked to the old BM tradition (a good cover of Burzum's ³Det Some En Gang
Var² is performed on the second album). The fame of this band was, and
sometimes still is, mainly linked to the presence in the line up of the
legendary "voice of death", the singer which gave his voice to the black
metal album of all black metal albums: The Misteriis Dom Sathanas. I'm
talking of Attila Csihar, the most gifted and expressive of the BM
vocalists, in my opinion.
With this third album the band has made the final jump to industrial music.
That's indeed the hard point: I mean, is it possible to define it Black
Metal, or even Necro Post Black Metal (this undefined creature), as the
label¹s biography does?
The first listening of this album will indeed give you a feeling of strong
surprise and maybe of doubt: how to consider it? A masterpiece of superb
experimentation or a garbage full of noise and electric sounds?
From the beginning you'll notice the most evident change: the aesthetic
impact you'll have with the product has nothing to do with BM as we
traditionally conceive it. We can guess the type of music starting from the
cover, which represents an industrial facility on a white background, and
from the titles of the songs: if "The Alienation Of A Blackened Heart" or
"Faustian Spirit Of The Earth" are more "traditional" titles, some others
such as "Automatik Rave'olution Satan", "Digital Goat Masque" or the title
track "With No Human Intervention" shows us the meaning of coldness and
mechanic sterility that the Italian band wants to transmit. The way they
present themselves is also pretty original and innovative: the classical
Black&White facepainting has been replaced with masks painted with those
colours that glow under the UV lights, in order to create startling effects.
A little example which shows how this band is interested in linking music
with aesthetic impact. Once you put the CD inside your Hi-Fi and you begin
to listen to the first track, you can think to be in the presence of a fast
and raw BM album, played with skill and with the heavy and oppressive
presence of a hell-fire blasting drum machine and some electronic samples,
where the voice of Cshiar makes its usual outstanding and evil performance.
Then, you'll be brought to think that in some parts it seems more like a
Death Metal band which often goes on the border with Grind, because of the
monolithic guitars rhythmics (listen to around 2:00 of "Faustian Spirit Of
The Earth") and some fast razorblade like riffs. Then, when you listen to
the "Does not Compute" track (composed for Aborym by Matt Yerman from
Void/OCD) you'll begin to be a bit lost: the electronic beep which ended the
previous song starts the beginning of an electronic track in which this
beeping sound is accompanied by other new industrial samples, all to create
a slightly beating "symphony" of cold machinery sounds. Ok, its a bizarre
experiment, you'll probably say. If you go on listening (and that¹s only if
you¹re able toSthe album is pretty long and really hard to digest at the
first listening) you'll get a better idea of the strange BM style of Aborym,
and maybe begin to appreciate the inhuman effect of the drum machine and the
good variations of Csihar's singing. Then, the choc. "Chernobyl Generation"
is the track that you'd never expect to hear on a BM album, the track which
probably gives you the complete comprehension of this album. Only industrial
hardcore beats, electronic samplesSrave music. I personally feel really
lost, mainly in the prospective of making this review. I frankly feel myself
not able to evaluate the musical value of a track like this, a track which
has simply nothing of "metal" and not because there are not the guitars, but
because it is included in another musical genre. What I can say is that
"Cernobyl Generation² is what will make the difference in this album: if
some BM fans might find some of the other tracks acceptable, this one will
be seen as a blasphemy, while if some will appreciate this new style of BM,
this track will enlighten them to understand its mood and its spirit better:
a fusion between trance-like music and Black Metal.
The album is well built: the length (64:57) is the main problem if listened
to altogether, but the single songs are really well structured, not only
speed and pounding drum machine (very well programmed) but also slow
electronic parts accompanied by the incredible voice of Attila Csihar,
really an artist in his genre.
The other surprise is that for this album Aborym have had the contributes of
a lot of artists from other groups, between which we can highlight
Nattefrost, from Carpathian Forest, that made some guest vocals and Faust,
ex drummer from Emperor and Thorns, currently in jail for the murder of a
homosexual in 1994, who wrote some lyrics and who made a guest appearance
with some spoken words by phone from the jail (!!). What surprised me
(positively) was that these two guests are members, or ex members, of really
"classical" BM acts: the BM movement is changing, none can deny it - the
closed mindedness, trademark of BM is dead and the artists are searching new
ways. Well, in this optic, I have to say that Aborym are really at the
avantgarde, playing something new without fear to be hated for that.
Sure, if you hate any kind of electronic sounds, forget this album at once,
but if you are interested in listening to a really innovative mixture of
genres (o maybe a new genre in itself) think about it.
review by Sephiroth www.metalstorm.ee
and what to tell you of this album. Not because I have no idea on it, but
because many could find it a complete masterpiece, but most will find it
completely unacceptable.
Some words about Aborym: they're now on their third full-length, coming from
a long career, since 1992 when Malfiteor Fabban, the bass player and
mastermind of the band, founded it. The previous two albums (Kali Yuga
Bizarre in 1999 and Fire Walk With Us! in 2001) showed a black metal band
deeply influenced by electronic and industrial sonorities, even if still
linked to the old BM tradition (a good cover of Burzum's ³Det Some En Gang
Var² is performed on the second album). The fame of this band was, and
sometimes still is, mainly linked to the presence in the line up of the
legendary "voice of death", the singer which gave his voice to the black
metal album of all black metal albums: The Misteriis Dom Sathanas. I'm
talking of Attila Csihar, the most gifted and expressive of the BM
vocalists, in my opinion.
With this third album the band has made the final jump to industrial music.
That's indeed the hard point: I mean, is it possible to define it Black
Metal, or even Necro Post Black Metal (this undefined creature), as the
label¹s biography does?
The first listening of this album will indeed give you a feeling of strong
surprise and maybe of doubt: how to consider it? A masterpiece of superb
experimentation or a garbage full of noise and electric sounds?
From the beginning you'll notice the most evident change: the aesthetic
impact you'll have with the product has nothing to do with BM as we
traditionally conceive it. We can guess the type of music starting from the
cover, which represents an industrial facility on a white background, and
from the titles of the songs: if "The Alienation Of A Blackened Heart" or
"Faustian Spirit Of The Earth" are more "traditional" titles, some others
such as "Automatik Rave'olution Satan", "Digital Goat Masque" or the title
track "With No Human Intervention" shows us the meaning of coldness and
mechanic sterility that the Italian band wants to transmit. The way they
present themselves is also pretty original and innovative: the classical
Black&White facepainting has been replaced with masks painted with those
colours that glow under the UV lights, in order to create startling effects.
A little example which shows how this band is interested in linking music
with aesthetic impact. Once you put the CD inside your Hi-Fi and you begin
to listen to the first track, you can think to be in the presence of a fast
and raw BM album, played with skill and with the heavy and oppressive
presence of a hell-fire blasting drum machine and some electronic samples,
where the voice of Cshiar makes its usual outstanding and evil performance.
Then, you'll be brought to think that in some parts it seems more like a
Death Metal band which often goes on the border with Grind, because of the
monolithic guitars rhythmics (listen to around 2:00 of "Faustian Spirit Of
The Earth") and some fast razorblade like riffs. Then, when you listen to
the "Does not Compute" track (composed for Aborym by Matt Yerman from
Void/OCD) you'll begin to be a bit lost: the electronic beep which ended the
previous song starts the beginning of an electronic track in which this
beeping sound is accompanied by other new industrial samples, all to create
a slightly beating "symphony" of cold machinery sounds. Ok, its a bizarre
experiment, you'll probably say. If you go on listening (and that¹s only if
you¹re able toSthe album is pretty long and really hard to digest at the
first listening) you'll get a better idea of the strange BM style of Aborym,
and maybe begin to appreciate the inhuman effect of the drum machine and the
good variations of Csihar's singing. Then, the choc. "Chernobyl Generation"
is the track that you'd never expect to hear on a BM album, the track which
probably gives you the complete comprehension of this album. Only industrial
hardcore beats, electronic samplesSrave music. I personally feel really
lost, mainly in the prospective of making this review. I frankly feel myself
not able to evaluate the musical value of a track like this, a track which
has simply nothing of "metal" and not because there are not the guitars, but
because it is included in another musical genre. What I can say is that
"Cernobyl Generation² is what will make the difference in this album: if
some BM fans might find some of the other tracks acceptable, this one will
be seen as a blasphemy, while if some will appreciate this new style of BM,
this track will enlighten them to understand its mood and its spirit better:
a fusion between trance-like music and Black Metal.
The album is well built: the length (64:57) is the main problem if listened
to altogether, but the single songs are really well structured, not only
speed and pounding drum machine (very well programmed) but also slow
electronic parts accompanied by the incredible voice of Attila Csihar,
really an artist in his genre.
The other surprise is that for this album Aborym have had the contributes of
a lot of artists from other groups, between which we can highlight
Nattefrost, from Carpathian Forest, that made some guest vocals and Faust,
ex drummer from Emperor and Thorns, currently in jail for the murder of a
homosexual in 1994, who wrote some lyrics and who made a guest appearance
with some spoken words by phone from the jail (!!). What surprised me
(positively) was that these two guests are members, or ex members, of really
"classical" BM acts: the BM movement is changing, none can deny it - the
closed mindedness, trademark of BM is dead and the artists are searching new
ways. Well, in this optic, I have to say that Aborym are really at the
avantgarde, playing something new without fear to be hated for that.
Sure, if you hate any kind of electronic sounds, forget this album at once,
but if you are interested in listening to a really innovative mixture of
genres (o maybe a new genre in itself) think about it.
review by Sephiroth www.metalstorm.ee