ABORYM - Kali-Yuga Bizarre Digi-CD

Aborym's debut album, Kali Yuga Bizarre, is outdone in intensity only by the band's subsequent releases. On this one, they are a quintet, comprised of vocalist Yorga, bassist/effects man Malfeitor Fabban, guitarists Sethlans and Nisrok, and, of course, Attila Csihar, who is most known for his work on Mayhem's, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, but only lends his services to three tracks here.

There are industrial refrains on this album, namely on track two, 'Horrenda Peccata Christ', but this is pure and true Black Metal. Even the evil ambience of 'Hellraiser' is, despite its prophetic, futuristic overtones, a wicked slab of blasting BM, and the following track, 'Roma Divina Urbs' includes some clean chorus parts that contrast the rest of the album, displaying an anthemesque, Emperor-like grandness. The elctronic elements are not omnipresent, but succeed in penetrating the wall of noise at precisely the right moments, preventing redundancy.

'Tantra Bizarre' is a breakbeat instrumental, and 'Come Thou Long Expected Jesus' is an heretical melding of a somber Roman Catholic hymnal and a provocative spoken-word piece. These non-metal snippets add context and direction to the album as a whole. Next comes 'Metal Stricken Terror Action', a more direct Death/Thrash assault that flows seamlessly into the symphonic album outro, 'The First Four Trumpets.' And, just like that, it's all over.