Post by thesoundmonitor on Nov 11, 2003 7:21:18 GMT -5
DISFEAR
Misanthropic Generation
(Relapse)
By Matt Harris
This is a new album from a Swedish band that mix heavy, raw walls of guitar noise, quick, scorching solos, rocking drums, and a death metal-style rasping vocalist. Sound familiar? Well, guess again; this band is called Disfear.
Obviously, these guys are going to get compared to Entombed. They even toured with them recently in Europe. The ingredients are basically the same, but the end product cooks up quite differently, showing a bigger punk influence than their compatriot peers.
The first song is appropriately titled ‘Powerload’. It sets the tone for the album from the opening lines: “Now unleashed upon mankind, the final curse”. Unleashed is an appropriate word here - opening this CD case is like opening a box full of anger.
Track two, ‘An Arrogant Breed’, is great too. It rallies against the emptiness and greed of our throwaway society. Other songs follow similar themes - alienation, helplessness, anger and frustration.
The vocalist is Tomas Lindberg from At The Gates, and he only has one approach on this album - full on. It suits the music, but lacks variation, and can become a little numbing. After a while, the tracks all start to blur into one.
In the end, it’s this lack of variation that lets this release down. It feels a little one paced. There are times when you feel they are going to break a song down a little bit, maybe build up with a slower riff or something, but it never lasts long. It’s like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer for 38 minutes, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it makes it difficult to pick out any really memorable high points.
One final thing I have to mention: the packaging. This is a Relapse release, and these guys know how to package a CD. OK, so it’s obviously the same graphic designer as the one Nile have been using (his name’s Orion Landau, actually), but it looks amazing, so a big thumbs up for that. Thankfully the lyrics are printed clearly and in full, because they are excellent, but would be nothing but unintelligible rasps without the lyric sheet.
Anyway, if you need a Swedish heavy death’n’roll fix, and you’re sick of waiting for the new Entombed album to be released locally, this album will definitely keep you happy in the meantime. It sounds great and has attitude to burn.
Misanthropic Generation
(Relapse)
By Matt Harris
This is a new album from a Swedish band that mix heavy, raw walls of guitar noise, quick, scorching solos, rocking drums, and a death metal-style rasping vocalist. Sound familiar? Well, guess again; this band is called Disfear.
Obviously, these guys are going to get compared to Entombed. They even toured with them recently in Europe. The ingredients are basically the same, but the end product cooks up quite differently, showing a bigger punk influence than their compatriot peers.
The first song is appropriately titled ‘Powerload’. It sets the tone for the album from the opening lines: “Now unleashed upon mankind, the final curse”. Unleashed is an appropriate word here - opening this CD case is like opening a box full of anger.
Track two, ‘An Arrogant Breed’, is great too. It rallies against the emptiness and greed of our throwaway society. Other songs follow similar themes - alienation, helplessness, anger and frustration.
The vocalist is Tomas Lindberg from At The Gates, and he only has one approach on this album - full on. It suits the music, but lacks variation, and can become a little numbing. After a while, the tracks all start to blur into one.
In the end, it’s this lack of variation that lets this release down. It feels a little one paced. There are times when you feel they are going to break a song down a little bit, maybe build up with a slower riff or something, but it never lasts long. It’s like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer for 38 minutes, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it makes it difficult to pick out any really memorable high points.
One final thing I have to mention: the packaging. This is a Relapse release, and these guys know how to package a CD. OK, so it’s obviously the same graphic designer as the one Nile have been using (his name’s Orion Landau, actually), but it looks amazing, so a big thumbs up for that. Thankfully the lyrics are printed clearly and in full, because they are excellent, but would be nothing but unintelligible rasps without the lyric sheet.
Anyway, if you need a Swedish heavy death’n’roll fix, and you’re sick of waiting for the new Entombed album to be released locally, this album will definitely keep you happy in the meantime. It sounds great and has attitude to burn.