On their debut album, “Refracture,” Aberration molds together a monstrous sounding death metal release that ventures down into the cataclysmic depths to achieve a profoundly malevolent sound. The Minneapolis, MN based band proves to be a formidable force that looks to violently reshape the perception of extreme music by offering up some mind bending brutality with each new track.
Working with Sentient Ruin on the release of their debut full-length album, Aberration confidently puts forth an album that does not fall into the run-of-the-mill modern death metal category. Very similar to other artists on Sentient Ruin, I find that Aberration’s skillful musicianship as well as their abhorrent approach to composing death metal, creates an unfathomably deafening sounding realm where the music grips you from start to finish. I reviewed the band’s first self-titled EP back in 2021 and I definitely remember being impressed by the band’s willingness to compose these unique agonizing riffs, while maintaining such a vividly haunting overall tone. Recently, they put out a split with fellow Sentient Ruin label mates, Diabolic Oath, which I also recommend checking out if you're into sinister sounding death metal.
The new album features five tracks, but most of the songs on this album average around eight to ten minutes, so do not let the number of tracks think you are getting a short release. Actually, the longer tracks feature a plethora of dynamic compositions and dissonant chord structures to keep you constantly focused and wondering where the band will transition next after already laying down a mighty death metal barrage. There is definitely an unpredictable and eradicate side to their style of death metal, but of course that is why I think Aberration is such a fascinating extreme metal act. On the opening track, “Antithesis,” the band slowly rises from the abyss and then unleashes a punishing riff assault. The vocals give off this pestilent demonic vibe as the singer growls with tremendous ferocity, while your ears get completely pummeled by the intense blast beats. At the core of this album, the drummer maintains such a monumental presence and the recording of the drummers is something that I think was exceptionally executed throughout the album.
On the second track, “Wresting Vibrations,” you are violently thrown into this realm full of unorthodox arrangements and chord structures, which compliments the album’s dark entropic vision. I think, "Wresting Visions," was my favorite song off of the album because of the savagely aggressive sounding dissonant riffs. Along with most of the songs off of this album, you are almost overwhelmed by the complete chaos going on in terms of how the band frantically transitions from arrangement to arrangement, but eventually you become firmly acclimated to the sadistic unpredictable musical landscape. This was also the case with tracks like, “Interstitial Enmity” and “Blighted,” where the band deals out these insidiously bludgeoning riffs. At times the music slows down to allow the band to conjure up these thunderously agonizing rhythms that end up complimenting the singer's inhumanely unapologetic vocal delivering.
From the album’s opening track until the last song, “Refracture,” I do honestly believe that Aberration did not disappoint in terms of intensity and unforgiving brutality. Overall, this is a strong debut album from a very ambitious extreme metal band. I am not surprised that Sentient Ruin is continuing to work with Aberration, especially given the label’s strong history of putting out profoundly decimating releases. One recommendation for Aberration would be to continue to explore those surrealistically dark and unorthodox compositions which make their debut album such a compelling extreme metal creation. In a world where we are overwhelmed with mindless simplicity from mainstream music, you really do appreciate a band like Aberration for their skillfully innovative extreme metal mindset.
Check out the song "Interstitial Enmity" below (Album comes out March 22, 2024) :
