Echoes of Terror

Following three demos, Disembowel have a full length of putrid death metal to offer.

Feedback and crusty riffs bellow in with crushing aggression, crawling alongside macabre growls and snappy drums to set in with a convulsively abrasive rhythmic onslaught. Disturbingly dark tremolo riffs and double kick bass hits hard with a Bolt Thrower style mid-tempo bout of warfare, chiming cymbals cutting through the mix. Thunderous drum fills and cascading blast-beats transform into a monstrously hideous beast with malignant guitar, bass and vocals churning out utter disdainful, odious death metal brilliance.

The scathing inferno of meaty death metal barbarity continues with utmost proficiency, driving out a powerful and forceful onslaught of bellowing, guttural soundscapes torn right from the crypts of filthy extremity. Disembowel do not waste any time, maintaining a consistently brutal and visceral, creeping momentum that really gets under your skin. Hauntingly aggressive with some impeccable snarled howls from the vocalist driving out further malice over the pummelling drums and crunchy, stomping riffs. There is no denying this is some monolithically heavy and intense material that is truly obliterating.

With a defiled growth occurring throughout the record, like the sound itself is mutating into something disgusting, the mind-bending chaos of the instrumental work fantastically fulfils its task of creating staunch and putrid layers for you to sink your teeth into with a raspy old school production that is still crystal-clear and actually rather tight. Hammering out ferocious riffs, growls and drum work is the consensus the bands ability, hitting furiously hard with an unrelenting yet somewhat diverse sound, featuring some nice tempo changes but mainly a consistent mid-range assault of offal-spawning marvellousness.

Pure old school death metal, no bells and whistles, just a meaty and solid upheaval of grave-grooves and mortifyingly crushing sounds, just how it should be. While there may not be anything particularly new here, who cares when it is still a brilliant record of classic sounds and delivered in such a brutal fashion.

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com

American death metal group Disembowel has put out their first LP in 2020 after putting out three demos around 2016 and 2017, and it is what I would call a "solid debut album!". At no point on this album are they doing anything new or game changing, but I don't think it has any weak tracks on it, and its definitely not a bad album. Disembowel stays within the medium-fast tempo ball park with some excellent guitar chugging, in-the-pocket double bass patterns, round and dirty bass guitar, and vocals which resonate through the whole mix and shake your skull. The mix on this album is excellent. The levels, eq, compression and other mixing and mastering tools are used perfectly to achieve a well rounded and finished sound to it. Nothing ever feels like it is jumping out at you in the wrong way, which will let the listener focus on the engaging musician ship and songwriting.

First off, let me state that the album art is what hooked me into listening to this album. The dynamic colour palette brings the images to life and captivates the eye, sparking curiosity about the music. It grabbed me instantly. Mesmerized, I decided to give the whole record a listen to see if the music this album art was representing was any good.

Most of the material on this album comes from their previously released demo tapes "Dramatic Decay" and "Echoes of Terror/Putrified Remains". "Putrified" starts the album off with some sludgy riffing and some double bass pedal action right before picking up the pace and taking the listener on a wild ride. "Putrified" is followed by "Immolation" and "Sadistic", which are both solid songs and keep the record moving at a healthy pace. The rest of the album continues with the same tricks and techniques which leads to the tracks becoming a little predictable. This predictable nature is broken a little bit on "echoes" with a riff that follows the major scale.

The rest of the album plays out similarly to the rest of what the other tracks brought to the table. The one downfall of the record is its constant nonstop slow-fast and crushing instrumental formula. While I don't think it turns me off from the record, it plays itself over with the same tricks and becomes a little redundant by the 8th song (of 9). The final song doesn't feel like a finale, but rather just a song to subtly wrap things up. I don't mind it, but I would have liked a little more star power to finish off the album with a bang.

There is still plenty of great material on this album that makes for some crushing death metal. Each track is a whirlwind of skull crushing riffs, bass, and drums. While these songs may sound a little formulaic and monotone, keep in mind that this is the first album Disembowel has released, and this LP has shown promise for bigger things to come. Im excited to see if the band branches out while keeping their crushing sound.

I was wholly unfamiliar with this band, but they're on Maggot Stomp records so I knew what I was getting into. I really like some of the bands that label signed recently like Sanguisugabogg, Encoffinized, 200 Stab Wounds, Coffin Rot, and now Disembowel. This particular album I'm reviewing is not my favorite release from said label, but it's still pretty solid. Before you listen, this is a very un-polished album, complete with sloppy... Well, sloppy everything. In some forms, it helps the brutally simple and slamming elements, but often annoyed me. It's off-time regularly which some people will enjoy but wasn't my cup of tea.

The production is on the guitars are fittingly grimy. This is a very riff-driven album and the riffs they are a-plenty. There are also some great tremolo sections like on the intro to "Immolation". My favorite track, "Chuffed Beyond Recognition", benefits and is lifted up by such strong riffage and general rhythm guitar playing. Other than the apparent solo on the track, the guitars on this track are great. Generally, there aren't many leads, which I am definitely okay with because I don't think the lead guitar player is all that great. There are a few solos elsewhere on the album and they are really lackluster. Mostly the solos are forgettable, uninteresting, and poorly executed. The album overall would do better to not have them there.

There is some great variation in the drums department. Overall I'd say the title track, "Echoes of Terror" has the strongest drums. I've noticed a trend of that in this corner of the death metal world. This album is knuckle-dragging dirty echo simple caveman riffs with surprisingly interesting drums. If you're a fan of the band Fetid and their album Steeping Corporeal Mess, this should also interest you especially in the percussion department. The bass guitar does it's job well adding such heft to the overall mix. You can hear it surprisingly well with certain sections. There's not much to the actual execution of playing the instrument, but the overall effect it has is unmistakable and palpable.

My main concern with the album is the song writing. Sometimes there's not much in the sound of each song that differentiates it from one another. This lends to a primordial soup of music that I love the sound of but at times the progression can feel a little boring. Track 8 has some time play lending to a refresher from the monotony but unfortunately comes a little too late on the album. A few tracks stand out from the pack, as mentioned below in the favorite tracks section. I just wish there were more solid tracks such as these.

Favorite tracks:
-"Chuffed Beyond Recognition"
-"Sadistic Pleasure"
-"Ascend to Obscurity"

Songwriting: 48% Originality: 54% Technical skill: 68% Production: 72%