UMUR
"Engineering the Dead" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Belgian death metal act Aborted. The album was released through Listenable Records in July 2001. The album was released on both CD and in a vinyl version limited to 500 copies. "Engineering the Dead" was re-issued in January 2008 with new cover artwork and 3 bonus tracks.
The music on the album is brutal death metal. The vocals by Sven de Caluwé are one of the defining features of the band´s sound. He delivers both deep intelligible growling, unintelligible deep growlin and higher pitched aggressive sneering. The vocal style is somewhat similar to the vocal style on the early Carcass albums. The instrumental side of the album is technically very well played. Even though the tracks are very brutal they don´t lack tempo changes or to a certain degree memorable parts. The tracks can be a bit hard to tell apart, but it helps the more you listen to the album, and catchy hooks begin to appear. Songtitles like "Exhuming the Infested", "Nailed Through Her Cunt" and "Skullfuck Crescendo" leave absolutely no doubt what the lyrical themes on the album are about. Fans of blood´n´gore themed death metal/deathgrind will probably enjoy this greatly.
The sound production is powerful and raw but ultimately pretty standard for the genre. "Engineering the Dead" is what I would call a very good death metal album. Definitely above average for the genre. As I said above there are some memorable hooks in the tracks, but it is in that department that Aborted lack that extra something to really rise above the standard label. The variation between tracks is also a place where the band had yet to improve at this stage. Still a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.