Dirty is a pretty apt name for this record. Not in a sleazy glam rock sense or in the way of sloppy crust punk, ‘dirty’ remains a pretty open term, but with Aborym’s sixth album, it accurately captures the clustered malaise at play here.
The band’s industrial black metal is all over the place, lacking the concision and focus to keep listeners interested for the album’s near-50 minute running time. Pervasive electronic beats and penetrating walls of mechanical guitars are the order of the day here with vocals that hop from typical black metal snarls to being reminiscent of Devin Townsend in his Strapping Young Lad days but the barrage never quite hits home.
The Italian band, who formed in 1993, are no newcomers, they know what they’re doing, as evidenced by their older material. However, this new album does nothing to breathe new life into a fatigued model. They are definitely ambitious in their craft, you would be a fool to deny that Aborym have ideas but the execution is where they fall down unfortunately.
The disturbingly titled Raped By Daddy is quite the example of where Aborym really fail to ignite with this record, with the track juddering along with no discernible direction and much of the riffs lost under the hail of electronics.
With all that said, the album is still very well produced. The band do not appear to have spared any expense in giving their attempted sound the proper studio job especially with just how many different elements are at play here. The album has the odd moment here and there where they pull off the industrial black metal sound relatively well, like Helter Skelter Youth, but perhaps a refining of the tunes overall could reap massive benefits in the future. However, Aborym have been plying their craft for 20 years and seem content in their ways.
4/10
Jonathan Keane