Their music is seminal in that it is arguably the earliest incarnation of what would become the template for the modern brutal death metal sound. Disgorge were doing it first, and for better or worse they were doing it so convincingly it’s almost as if no real progress has been made by anyone else since. Most contemporary brutal DM is, in whatever varying capacity, simply Disgorge repackaged. I don’t feel that’s a good thing, personally, as while it’s to Disgorge’s credit they managed to whittle it all down to its barest and most essential format, all they’ve really done is churn out what is the most easily reproduceable formula for passing the “we’re a brutal death metal band!” bar. There are as many Suffo-clones as there are Disgorge, and yet you know as well as I you couldn’t name off even one in which there isn’t a staggering divide between how desperately they want to sound like Suffocation and how close they actually come to accomplishing that feat. Meanwhile just off the top of my head the first Condemned LP sounds so uncannily like Disgorge that I find myself occasionally believing I *am* listening to Disgorge as it plays.
And that’s where it gets sketchy for me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to this album from beginning to end (and truly it’s more than I care to count), and there’s not a single riff–let alone an entire song–that grabs me and stands out in particular as something I’d like to revisit. Now depending on what you’re looking to get out of your extreme metal listening experience, some may not even view this as a negative, but rather a “feature” of the music. And indeed, there are countless pieces, both within and outside the genre, which take a more thoughtful approach to the compositions and focus on developing a song (or record as a whole) into more of a corridor or ‘journey’ than a mere accommodation for those seeking instant gratifications in the form of a quick-payoff catchy lick or melody. But is that what’s happening here? I’ve long held that with enough time spent with an instrument and the right practice, virtually anyone can achieve a level of technical proficiency, rendering it unimpressive on its own – but having a mind for memorable chops and creative, quality songwriting is something you either have or you don’t. The same goes for the ‘brutal’ designator, which I’m well beyond sick of as a go-to adjective to describe the quality of a band. Newsflash: all death metal is inherently brutal. That’s not a hallmark of quality, and it never was save for the initial separation from Thrash where the limits of a thriving new genre were being explored. But I digress.
Inhuman low range vocals – periodically layered with highs a la Deicide/Deeds of Flesh, blastbeats galore, and petri dish riffwork of hyperfast palm muted power chords, trills, chromatic 16th note fills and the staple amelodic tremolo segments are the name of the game here. The production may be a big part of what I dislike about it. It’s not terrible, but I’m never a fan of the vocalist being front and center in the mix. Everything besides Matti Way sounds thin and tinny, and while stylistically very different from say Corpsegrinder, Matti is seemingly valued similarly as the main attraction and often devours and drowns out the instruments. I find myself wishing there were lengthier sections with him not actively contributing. Their style is expressly anti-hook, and when coupled with the production that bears a decided lack of clarity between instruments results in all songs sounding samey.
In spite of all this, there *is* an almost intangible quality to the music that allows it to work on a level it probably shouldn’t. It is death metal in its purest and most unapologetic form, and there’s an unrestrained and unabashed intensity to the album that feels akin to being run over by a truck.
rafazardly 