Reviews list for Aborted - Vault of Horrors (2024)

Aborted have been around for a long time; since the late 1990s, but they play a style of music that has never resonated with me. Brutal death metal and grindcore are genres that I frequently avoid, but was asked by some of my more mainstream adjacent metal friends to listen to the newest record from the band, Vault of Horrors. This was perplexing to me given the bands track record, and scene kids love their chugging breakdowns. The track listing made it all make sense. This isn't a typical Aborted album, but rather an Ayreon album where every track has guest feature vocalist from varying popularity of deathcore bands. From Shadow of Intent to Signs of the Swarm, Archspire to Ingested. If you spend any amount of time in deathcore circles, you will know at least one of these guest features bands.

Right out of the gate you might pick up on the issue here. Aborted are making brutal death metal, almost to the point of deathgrind, and then they bring in a whose who of deathcore vocalists? Suffice to say, the style of music on display here is the farthest it has ever been from grindcore. I think the record has its moments: some decent melodies on "Dreadbringer" and "The Golgothan", but more often than not they kind of blend into the background. The intensity of this album is pummeling from start to finish and leaves very little room for development/growth. Individual tracks just flounder and as a whole, Vault of Horrors gets derivative quite quickly.

The production is not great; never would have guessed that from a record published by Nuclear Blast. Because it's deathcore, the main objective in the mixing is to have everything played at maximum volume at every moment. It turns into a cacophony of sound where everyone is trying to be the focal point of the song, and it just turns into every instrument shouting at one another. The worst moment occurred pretty early on, but the penultimate moments of "Brotherhood of Sleep", just before the breakdown sounds atrocious. 

Aborted are an old band so they do have some freedom play the safe "legacy" game for the remainder of their careers. But they decided not to do that. I can give them credit for stepping outside of the comfort zone, but the execution is pretty subpar.

Best Songs: Dreadbringer, Death Cult, The Golgothan