ABORTED Brutalise The UK/IR With TerrorVision Tour [Review + Photo Gallery]

Aborted

“…this was definitely one of the best tours in our career” – Aborted

32 back-to-back shows, in 32 days – after annihilating Europe with their sold-out “Hell Over Europe” tour, Aborted brought “TerrorVision” to the UK and Ireland for a whole week of goremageddon in support of the brand new album*. With Montréal’s extreme metal titans Cryptopsy as special guests, hot from the release of ‘The Book of Suffering – Tome II’, and support from the UK’s own Ingested and Unfathomable Ruination, this was to be the ultimate deathfest, and we caught it all on the opening night!

“TerrorVision” is out now on Century Media Records and can be purchased here.

UNFATHOMABLE RUINATION

Starting in the capitol London at the Dome in Tufnell Park, the queue was already wrapping around the venue on arrival, with the crowd buzzing with anticipation and already posting to social media. Considering that usually the venue tends to pack out after the first few acts, this was a really positive sign for openers Unfathomable Ruination playing in their hometown. Having previously supported the likes of Morbid Angel, Cattle Decapitation, Marduk and more, the 5-piece have quickly establishing them as one of the most promising metal acts in the UK’s death metal scene. Tonight they tore into their opening slot, playing from across both their debut ‘Misshapen Congenital Entropy’ (2012) and their latest album ‘Finitude’ (2016). Ferocious tracks “Abdication of Servitude”and “Carved Inherent Delusion” brought a technical insanity and to the Dome with the crowd already starting circle pits and head banging intensely. The atmosphere so early on was electric and made even more so with Ben Wrights brutal gutterals and growls louder than life in the venue, enhanced by the punching intensity of the kick drum and toms thundering at break neck speed. There was a fantastic rapport between Wright and the crowd, with them shouting “Croydon!” and Unfathomable Ruination responding with “…this one goes out to the Croydon boys” before tearing into “Nihilistic Theorem”.

Ingested

INGESTED

I last saw Ingested at the London release show for ‘The Level Above Human’ so I was really stoked to witness the record again first hand and in a much larger venue. This UK/IR run of shows began just a few days after they finalised their North American headline “Evisceratour” in Dallas on the 23^rdwith Enterprise Earth and Bodysnatcher, and appeared just before they headed off once again on their EU tour with Extermination Dismemberment and Stillbirth. Opening with “Sovereign” the kings of slam rightfully took up their throne and began their onslaught with punishing beat-downs enhanced by the harshness of Jay Evans’ distinctive dynamic vocals. A nice touch was featuring the blisteringly brutal “The Divine Right of Kings” and “Narcissistic Apathy” from 2015s ‘The Architect of Extinction’ that was mixed by Cryptopsys own guitarist Christian Donaldson. The crowd certainly gave Ingested a welcome party to remember, moshing violently and throwing themselves into the music with an unrelenting energy that spread across the venue. Reciprocated onstage with Evans shouting, “I wanna see a wall of death!” and grinning to the unfolding carnage– in retrospect this was probably not the best moment to be on the inner edge of the pit getting crowd shots! The whole performance was a ferocious feat climaxed once again on “Anal Evisceration” with it’s punishing gutterals that make Ingested one of the UKs most savage death metal acts.

CRYPTOPSY

“Welcome to the Cryptopsy experience!!” – Matt McGachy

With over 20 years in the scene, veterans Cryptopsy have ever pushed the boundaries of their sound to extremis, and this years’ ‘Book of Suffering – Tome II’ is no exception. Tonight’s performance brought this brand new release to UK stages for the first time, causing absolute Armageddon to the floor that was already soaked from spilt pints and sweat. Opening with “Detritus (The One They Kept)”, the very first track from ‘The Book of Suffering – Tome I’ Matt McGachy instantaneously became a dominating figure, towering over the crowd and screaming into their faces with a formidable ferociousness – his deep end brutal vocals reverberated across the venue and his onstage performance was the most aggressively passionate of the night with an insane amount of wind-milling. The crowd went absolutely crazy with pit after pit to new songs “Sire of Sin” and “Fear His Displeasure”, but the highlight for me, that I’m sure it was for others was hearing “Slit Your Guts” from the legendary ‘None So Vile’ (1996) first hand – this track epitomises everything that true death metal should be with it’s unearthly speed, mind-melting solos and savage gutterals. “London! Let’s see what you f**kers have left tonight!” Closing on “Orgiastic Disembowelment” the special guests put on a performance that was more than worthy of being a headline, that for some arguably stole the show.

Aborted

ABORTED

By the time Aborted took to the stage, the room was now completely packed and many of us were fully adrenalized. It felt like Cryptopsys set would be hard to beat but Aborted made the stage completely their own – finally unveiling drummer Ken Bedenes kit that had been concealed on the stage and bringing with them their own gory delights with heads on spikes and corpses in illuminated containers. With horns to the crowd from Bedenes, Aborted opened with “TerrorVision”, the title track from their recently released album of the same name, quickly followed by the hard-hitting “Deep Red”. Despite the absence of Mendel Bij De Leij, the four members threw themselves into their performance, with wind-milling from Stefano Franceschini and vocalist Sven De Caluwe getting right up and personal to the front-row fans, screaming right into our faces at close proximity. He was completely all over the stage, gesturing his arms and jumping passionately to the intensity of the riffs and hyper-drived speed of theblast-beats and double bass – the whole experience was all-consuming with its severe intensity, maximised visually with the red and green lights and dazzling strobe. There were far too many pits to count, with hair flying all over the place from head-banging and the crowd pushing continuously to get to the front. Although this tour was primarily in support of ‘TerrorVision’, Aborted filled their set-list with songs from across their discography including “Retrogore” and “Divine Impediment” from 2016s ‘Retrogore’, to “Hetacomb” from 2005s‘The Archaic Abattoir’. The crowd showed Aborted exactly what the UK is made of and went absolutely berserk to the closer “The Holocaust Incarnate” from 2001s classic ‘Engineering The Dead’. Aborteds performance was in complete overdrive from the start and never ceased to slow down, giving the UK the proper “Hell Over Europe” treatment. With an unforgettable show such as tonight’s, it’s no wonder these shows have been near complete sell-outs!