review by: Roberto Martinelli

Although this is Aborym's first album, we're reviewing it after having reviewed Aborym's second album (see issue #8) because World War III Records has just released it as a US domestic disk. So now you can get it at Best Buy!

So it's kind of funny to review this album in retrospect. Well, Kali Yuga Bizarre can't hold a candle to Fire Walk with Us, Aborym's godly sophomore album. You can see that the framework was being laid here: the melding of black metal, industrial and some techno, but Aborym was largely trying to find its definite voice when it recorded this album. The mix of these elements isn't so solid - they exist kind of in spite of each other.

A big factor in the lack of solidity are the vocals. Attila Csihar, the indispensable vocalist on Fire Walk... (and of De Misteriis Dom Sathanas, don't ya know), is only on about half the tracks or less. The other guy is ok, but really, it's too tall of an order to stand up next to the character that Csihar's vocals possess. So naturally, some of the best parts on the album are when Attila is doing his thing, especially on one song that has a subdued intro, letting Attila's bizarre, fucked up phrasings be really noticeable.

Musically, Aborym was fiddling around with the kind of fruity symphonic elements that you might expect from Dimmu Borgir clone bands. It's ok, but again kind of icky when compared to what was done on Fire Walk...

So you see, it's impossible to really talk about this record without talking about Fire Walk with Us. You can see where Aborym came from, but there isn't really much reason to go out and buy this disk. Definitely, definitely check out the review of Fire Walk with Us here, see if it sounds up your alley, and buy that one.