Aborym
Shifting.negative
(Agonia Records)
Maybe starting out with “umm… what happened here?” isn’t the best way to open up a new release from these industrial black metal legends – but forget it. This isn’t black metal, and it barely even covers metal at all. What we have here is industrial hard rock with some metallic bits, much similar (and oddly similar) to Mortiis’s long awaited The Great Deceiver release, which may have been profoundly different from what we expected. As a matter of fact, I was surprised by how much NIN and Ministry influence this piece had, which were the same influences that I found in The Great Deceiver among others. I guess I can now add Mortiis to the list here, seeing as how both albums are nearly absurdly similar. The only difference between the two is that I like this one more.
Shifting.negative isn’t just a slew of NIN and KMFDM influenced cuts though, as there are airy pieces like “Precarious” and “For A Better Past which tone down on the guitars a bit and allow for more atmosphere than the majority of the tracks here, which are unexpectedly hard-hitting and in your face. Seriously folks, Aborym have brought us an industrial album that feels like it belongs somewhere between the late eighties and early nineties eras of this genre. The disc has far more in common with acts like Wumpscut, Combichrist and Front Line Assembly than any manner of black metal band, period. I am not mincing words when I say that the band have removed themselves far away from black metal here and thatt if you are looking for a return to the original material, you will not find it with Shifting.negative and will need to look elsewhere.
But is it good? Well, that depends on your palette for industrial. Not all of the songs are as cut and dry as the catchy “10050 Cielo Drive” and much of the record feels open-ended. There’s as much Skinny Puppy here as Pitchshifter. In fact, parts of closer “Big H” feel like early Pitchshifter. Though with all of the electronic and industrial influence, these guys haven’t forgotten about guitar solo sections (strangely, as even these are not wholly common on most industrial albums) which are also oddly complex for a record of this nature. Shifting.negative feels like a tribute to industrial music as a whole and it feels like Aborym are finally paying their dues to the bands that inspired them. Since I’ve listened to this record more than five times in the past week, I can definitely say that it’s growing on me, even though I had a bit of trouble first getting around opener “Unpleasantness.” I suppose this track probably wasn’t the best way for them to open an album of this nature, but if you give it a full chance, you might walk away with something at least; which is important.
The record consists of several cuts ranging from three to six minutes, never overstaying their welcome. But that in itself is also a problem, because a few of the tracks just sort of fly by with no real imprint to the psyche. Unfortunately, this can’t be helped and the record is rather short, often feeling much shorter during the listening process. Compared to the band’s previous album Dirty which released four years ago, this is a much different experience and a continued sign that the band are making all attempts to further distance themselves from their corpse-painted beginnings. Judging from the high reviews placed on it over at Metal Archives, their debut Kali Yuga Bizarre will always have a special spot in the metal community at large; but Shifting.negative brings a much different kind of animal that will either please or offend listeners depending on their musical tastes. That unfortunately can’t be helped either, but at least it’s a decent listen as a whole.
