Originally written by Jordan Campbell
This is an album about nothing.
Wait…how can that be? This is The Necrotic Manifesto, after all. Setting aside the book of Death Metal English for a moment, let’s pick up Merriam-Webster’s:
man•i•fes•to noun \?ma-n?-‘fes-(?)to\
: a written statement that describes the policies, goals, and opinions of a person or group
Using this definition of “manifesto”—and framing this record as a tangible representation of the band’s intent—let’s first look at Aborted‘s policies:
· As a unit, we will play modern death metal
· We will play it numbingly fast
· We will present it with most sterile, soulless production techniques that current technologies can offer
Next, let’s outline their goals:
· Promote desensitization to death metal drumming by placing the highest premium on precision and over-processing
· Render the elements of danger found in death metal completely benign by checklisting every trope at our disposal
· Paste additional clichés from the melodic, brutal, and –core branches of death to serve as signposts where our songwriting fails
· Utilize these cheap tricks to not just mask our lack of ideas, but also broaden our appeal. (Said appeal, however, should not extend beyond the installed base of modern death metal users.)
Finally, we’ll scan the song titles see if Aborted has any opinions:
· “The Extirpation Agenda”
o (This is a just a different way to say the album’s title.)
· “Necrotic Manifesto”
o (This is the album’s title.)
· “Chronicles of Detruncation”
o (Seriously, we’re just saying the same thing over and over again.)
· “Your Entitlement Means Nothing”
o (What, you expected more? Well, the jerk store called…)
· “The Davidian Deceit”
o (…and they said Seventh-Day Adventists are full of shit…?)
· “Die Verzwieflung”
o (Death Metal Band ABORTED are probably Nazis!)
So there’s the manifesto…of sorts. Still convinced that Aborted has something to offer beyond than a freeze-dried MRE of death metal idea scraps? Still holding out hope that a song titled “Excremental Veracity” could get away with lyrics like these?
Oh holy scat – Once from the pooper now shall be heard
This pungent mess – The whole wheat shaman of deathI gain wisdom from every turd
My fecal visions shall forever be heard
Now, you’re probably thinking to yourself, nobody listens to death metal for the lyrics!, just like you have been for the past twenty years. And you’re right. But that’s part of the problem. It allows the genre to rest in stasis.
And so, this will only appeal to the kind of person that enjoys bro-slams that sound like a pair Roombas playing Rock-em-Sock-em Robots (“Coffin Upon Coffin”), or that harbors insatiable urges for five solid minutes of computer-pressed double bass rolls (“Cenobites”). Aborted is pandering, and if you aren’t part of the genero-death pseudo-counterculture, The Necrotic Manifesto is going to leave you cold.
And thus, we have an album about nothing. It’s a safe, demographic-pleasing pastiche. Shrink-wrapped, factory-stamped, and oxygen-sapped; a loveless glob of soylent for gaping, indiscriminate maws.
But that’s what this strain of death metal is about, isn’t it? Colossal body count, massive blood loss…yet nary an ounce of soul.
Demand more.
