review by: Roberto Martinelli

Aborym is the band fronted by Attila Csihar. You know, the guy who did vocals on Mayhem's De Misteriis Dom Sathanas. This is Aborym's second album. There is absolutely no comparison between this album and the first Aborym, Kali Yuga Bizarre, which is more run-of-the-mill, thrash influenced extreme metal. You are guaranteed to be in for a major treat with this one.

While this is clearly a black metal album, it's of the genre that reviewers seem to like to call "black metal for the new millennium." So be it. Indeed, the music relies strongly on electronica elements, such as a drum machine. However, the drum machine isn't only good, it's as essential to the success of this album as any of the other factors that make up Fire Walk with Us. The blasting drums are masterfully matched with guitar riffs that come at you at all sorts of weird and engaging angles. This is very unlike the kind of bizarrerie found on Abigor's (excellent) Satanized, in which the strangeness has a cold and alienating effect on the listener.

The band masterfully inserts melody, brilliant building chord progressions, awesome, whacked-out guitar solos, and rhythm breaks into their songs to make them interesting no matter how many times you listen to the album. Background keyboards featuring well-chosen, never tacky or "gay" tones expertly add major amounts of dimension to the whole. Adding to the atmosphere are fantastically applied electronic effects, like bubbling, rattling, pinging, ominous industrial effects and general fuzziness, the last of which will always make this reviewer happy.

Last but not least are the groaning, whispering, croaking, moaning low vocals of Attila Csihar. You'll never hear vocals like this from anyone else in any genre. Csihar mixes it all up and somehow manages to give what he does some form of melody and hooks, playing off the unique approach of the music to make the whole experience even more fresh and entirely enjoyable. Added to the organic vocals of Csihar are masterfully chosen voice samples of what sounds like children screaming, incoherent male moaning, random breathing, whistling balloon shrieks and other inconceivable strangeness. Where so much of the vocal samples found in genres like dark ambient fail in that their primary purpose is to supply some form of coherent message, the incoherent nature of the subtly interwoven, musically structured vocal samples on Fire Walk with Us makes them forever complementary and fresh.

This album is so fucking great, even the techno track rules. Oh, yeah, there's also a genius cover of Burzum's "Det Som Engang Var," dark, ambient tracks, "Twin Peaks" worship, and more interesting ideas than can be chronicled in a mere review. Is that enough for you yet? Totally essential not only for fans of Anaal Nathrakh and Mysticum, but for any black metal fan with a brain.

One of the best albums of 2001, and certainly my most highly recommended selection of this issue.