Santo subito

The most straightforward bunch from the Austrian Triumvirate (which also consists of Pungent Stench, famous for their self-nibbling satire, and Dali-esque Disharmonic Orchestra) is not amongst the most prolific - it's their fifth album in 30 years. The genre-loyal brutality is fairly represented in classy artwork - rotten post-autopsy two-faced corpse and a dimly lit flesh-coloured background. Sure, it is capable to bring back an unwilling tear from an old school boys, but the package is not the feast - the course itself is what matters the most. And it must align with the cover.

Overall album sound was notably digitalized and earned some effectively sounding dynamic range, but it feels less explosive and raw in comparison to albums from 90s. But it's still not too polished. Vocal performance is rather angry and spiteful but it does not match the universe-crusher bulldozer growls of Harald Bezdek. You won't find a lot of vocal variety - if there's any, it's mostly a thin layer of sound effects. Riffs are mostly simple and somehow predictable - you cannot spot Elmar Warmuth going off the higher part of the neck. Quasi-melodic solos, for which the band is somehow famous, seem a bit rudimentary or not really necessary at times. Manfred Perack, now the only original band member, offered a quirky solutions to the rhythmic gaps in those songs, you can say that the most attractive part of the album is his drum playing. The proper analogy for the music Disastrous Murmur had offered here is a domesticated wolf - if the owner can find a way to reach the animan and the wolf's in a playful mood, you can imitate some of its wild antics, but sometimes you can make it enjoy common, silly dog toys (with which I compare the small solos spangled across the length of this LP). When you keep listening to this album, you don't get a feeling of abhorrent repetitiveness. even though an old school band releasing a very old school inspired album could've inevitably if not swept under the rug, then just had to additionally kill the listener's boredom. Speaking about the album highlights, I would mark a German-language, catchy, morbid track "Menschenfresser", kick-starting muscular boost o "Stop Talking - Start Dying" and pretty fun song called "Partially Executed Self-Cannibalism".

So, if being brutally honest and unbiased, this album is not the one to lead the charts of the genre - a great reputation and age did a lot for its notability. But if you think about it, for a moderately famous band with a banner waving up from good old times and a very loyal European fan base, this one is a good job. The band plays gigs and records songs mostly for pleasure on their own pace, being the rest mode they arguably deserved. they don't get ahead of themselves at all. And they know what people expect and especially what people want from them. This 66 rating is fine and fair, considering that if you liked previous Disastrous Murmur albums before, you'll hardly find a reason to hate this one.

Originally written for: https://www.darkside.ru/album/55598/