Following on from 2010’s rather good one-long-song concept album Psychogrotesque, Italian industrial stallions Aborym are back with what is being marketed as a double album. I say ‘marketed as’, because the second CD is thematically and musically separate from the first, containing only one new track, with the rest being rerecorded versions of older songs and covers. It’s more of a bonus CD really, which lets down my initial expectations of something even more ambitious than Psychogrotesque. Still, Malfeitor Fabban and co (as before, he’s joined here by Faust and Hell:I0:Kabbalus) usually manage to deliver the goods, and Dirty is, as expected, a more than solid album. From the opening beats of Irreversible Crisis, opening up into a blackened gallop leant an odd avant-garde nature from the heavy electronic effects everywhere, you know the band is on form, following on from the eeriest moments of Psychogrotesque and building an album around them, as the title would suggest. The repeated ‘chorus’ (the same words, but seemingly never to the same music) of Irreversible Crisis is ‘this world/wants to fuck you’ and there’s a nasty, sordid air elsewhere, coming to a peak on Raped by Daddy which ends with what sounds like a child groaning. Maybe it’s just my modern hipster squeamishness that makes me dislike this, but black metal was capable of unsettling atmospheres back in the day without being so deliberately and tastelessly explicit – in any case, the band certainly succeeds in being unsettling here.

As far as the music itself goes, it’s a compelling and capable mixture of black and industrial metal, with moments of gothic crooning to mix things up. Aborym are not growing old gracefully, far from it – moments like the title track mix the viciousness of their older material with a skilled songwriter’s sense of what beat sounds good where. Skrillex this ain’t; electronic elements are often as heavy if not moreso than the metal parts, and Aborym rarely allow a catchy moment to stand without messing with it. Bleedthrough takes a simple galloping riff and tips a box of industrial waste over it, while I Don’t Know has slightly nasal clean singing and rock-star soloing - sadly, the more avant-garde elements of Psychogrotesque like the saxophone seem to have been toned down if not removed, although there’s always enough going on to keep your ear hooked. The Factory of Death’s piano is an effective touch, as is the closing The Day the Sun Stopped Shining, far more black metal than elsewhere initially before breaking down and resulting in a surprisingly atmospheric ambient piece (and far more effective than Raped by Daddy, needless to say).

The second CD has rerecorded versions of two older songs – Fire Walk With Us and Roma Divina Urbs, and three covers. It’s the latter that are more interesting, mainly because of the results – firstly, Iron Maiden’s Hallowed Be Thy Name is incredible, mainly for the fact that the vocals are an impressive Dickinson impersonation and the melody is played on synths. By the time the breakbeats begin, you’ll either be having the time of your life or taking out a contract on Malfeitor’s life, never mind the harsh vocals just around the corner for the verses. Next to that, the following Comfortably Numb seems normal, Malfeitor continuing what will turn out to be a run of good vocal performances atop a nicely understated psychedelic electronic backdrop, and a mostly acoustic version of Hurt (Nine Inch Nails) before the new track Need For Limited Loss rounds things off – fortunately a killer, one of the older style Aborym tracks that focuses on blackened speed with an overlay of synth lines. All in all, Dirty is a very good if not quite great album from Aborym, that shows the band to be talented and worthy of its standing in industrial metal, and follows Psychogrotesque up well without being better than it.