Review Summary: This production has shown Aborted a more death metal like existence, but still manages to allow grind to continue through the small paths this album sets up.
That grand placing of the top end death metal existence has done nothing more than put itself in the most prestigious places. Aborted, formed in 1995, has cooked up several compounds of exceptional material that'll appeal to any true death metal fan. Aborted has been renowned for its excellence in combining different aspects of grind core with death metal to put together an "unrestrained grind core savagery and meticulously crafted death metal technicality". This put-together of ideas and many different influences, has had a monumental success with the widely acclaimed "Goremageddon". In "Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture", this combination takes a bigger leap towards death metal, and leaves behind ever so slightly the grind aspect, and throws the bands balance off a little bit. While they haven’t crafted an album quite as good as "Goremageddon", they have put together a highly influential death metal experience.
Aborted's first success for this album actually begins with the first track. The hook presented of the seemingly apparent "average" instrumentals, actually provides a fantastic backdrop for the amazing vocalist Sven "Svencho" de Caluwé. This man's vocals have had a major influence on this album from beginning to end, and when he explodes in the first track "The Chondrin Enigma", he doesn’t slow down at all till "Avenious", but even soon afterwards, the pace is picked up again. The drums in this album, courtesy of David Haley, are an entire story all on their own. Drumming in death metal has always been a wild experience for anyone who hasn’t heard it before. Some of the most widely acclaimed death metal bands have used many different styles of drumming in them that might provide a backdrop, or thunderous effect, or even to throw in rambling cymbal action. Whatever the reason, David Haley has perfected these excuses in nearly all of the tracks here, especially "And Carnage Basked in Its Ebullience", and "Odious Emanation". The heavy riffs in this album, especially notified by the constant battle you hear between the twin guitars grow so apparent in this album, that the riff age often overtakes most of the other sounds. Of these sounds includes the bass, which of a very high notice. Bassist Peter Goemaere has excelled at his part, by not adding repetitive, unskilled, and just plain awful bass, but he puts up what can be described as a "wall". This "wall" tends to keep the instrumentals in order, and not allow the guitars (which are overpowering enough as is) and the rapid kick of the drums to overthrow the vocals.
The ordeal of this apostasy of the bass, and its chance to shine in many areas of this album that would've fit well, do justice in the end by giving the other members a chance to shine bright. Mostly, the opportunity to reveal true skill is over exemplified in the album, and has a few rough areas to the mixture. Songs like "The Spraying Séance", and "Ingenuity in Genocide" overdoes many of the guitar roles, and even the vocalist tends to fall down on the job a bit. But these let-downs are few and far between, and are often forgotten by the next track, which usually fixes everything from the previous track. Because of this consistent repair to the album, the album is also allowed to flow fluently. The continuity of this album is most admirable, because the balance presented earlier, (where Aborted has flown more closely to death metal) is well justified by this flow. The album never, under no circumstances, jolts around, and never gets delayed by immediate consistency changes in the instruments, or the vocals. The album goes with the flow, but in a loud and heavy manner, like your standard death metal band would do. So if nothing else, you can at least count on simplicity of the album, even though the titles of these songs seem overbearing in vocabulary choice. This album really is short, and kept simple. No real leap of faith is shown here, and it’s probably for the better.
Aborted have reinstituted many sounds from previous album, especially "Goremageddon", but have not made the same thing over again. The songs here are presented in a careful manner, and are well composed at that. Most of this album reflects around the simplicity of the product, and doesn’t present itself as just another plain act that has been seen many times before, from this band, and others. Aborted has allowed a wide berth for this album to explore slightly unfamiliar territory for the death metal genre, while keeping alive the must-see grind core features. Though this bands lyric reflect more around death metal, the musical styles reflect that of a grind core group. Many influences have set this album up for high popularity, such as the famous "Napalm Death" for its grind core, and Cannibal Corpse, or Death, for the death metal traits. Some of the later acts presented by the most famous acts of grind, and death metal, will only extend the appreciation for this masterpiece.
