UMUR "La Grande Mascarade" is an EP release by Belgian death metal act Aborted. The EP was released through Century Media Records in April 2020. Since the release of "TerrorVision" from 2018 guitarist Mendel bij de Leij has left and "La Grande Mascarade" was therefore recorded as a quartet. The EP features three tracks. Two are new tracks and one was written and recorded during the "TerrorVision (2018)" sessions.

Although the tracks were written at two different sessions and a couple of years apart, they are all consistent in quality and style. It´s the sound of Aborted as we know them. Technically well played and brutal death metal with Sven de Caluwé´s deep growling and higher pitched aggressive snarling vocals on top. The quality is high throughout from high level musical performances, to the powerful, meaty, and detailed sound production, to the professional and effective songwriting. The tracks are all in a similar style to the sound on "TerrorVision (2018)" and those who enjoyed that album will pretty surely enjoy "La Grande Mascarade" greatly too.

Personally I found "TerrorVision (2018)" one of the more standard quality releases from Aborted. Still a high quality release, but not a release which stands out much in their by now vast discography, and the same can be said about "La Grande Mascarade". It´s a high quality release but it doesn´t add much new or interesting to Aborted´s sound. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved though.