Cognitive Lust of Mutilation

Disgorge, as they appear on this demo, are a pretty good example of the emerging sound of what would become modern brutal death metal. Brutal for its time, but not quite early enough to predate its most obvious influences, those being Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Immolation and others of a similar ilk. Perhaps I'm simply too familiarized with the hazy production and freewheeling nature of the band's later compositions, but I can't help but sit in awe at how this demo recorded in 1992 by some largely unknown death metal band possesses such clarity. Every instrument is more or less audible; the guitars, the bass, every little subtlety of the drums...Everything, really.

The guitar playing on this album is the standard of the early NYDM scene; demented tremolo lines, crushing percussive chordal progressions both fast and slow, with the occasional doom-influenced parts sounding well fit for an Autopsy album. It's not nearly as chaotic as things would be on later records, though the songs still are essentially a collection of riffs expounding upon a single musical theme that mostly abandon the verse/chorus/verse methodology of the typical death metal bands at the time. The vocalist has some natural reverberation on his voice, though it's far from the gurgle of Matti Way, being more akin to a deeper-toned Frank Mullen.

I recommend this not only to Disgorge fans, but fans of Suffocation and other such early brutal death metal acts that might otherwise be turned off to Disgorge's studio releases.