Okay, here's the thing... this band would be pretty good if I could take them seriously, or if they had a better recording, but I can't and they don't, so... this is a pretty useless CD. I mean, visually this thing is utterly atrocious. From the cheesy fonts that don't fit at all, to the generic war photo on the cover, the absolutely inexcusable Photoshop effects and photos of the band members pretending to kill/stab/bludgeon/choke each other... this is an immature and unprofessional looking record. It could be worse, but there's not much of an excuse to put out a record that looks this goofy. The lyrics deal with violent topics, but thankfully they're more involved than just being typical gore stuff, so there's more going on as far as having actual serious topics. So I don't know why the fuck they decided to make their record look so dumb, but whatever. As for the music, it's pretty straightforward death/thrash that has a pretty good amount of energy, some ragingly pissed off vocal snarls, and a rapid fire attack that keeps most of the songs running less than three minutes each. It's nothing new, but the riffs aren't bad, and the vocals really add a lot to their approach - the guy just goes nuts with some cackling fast vocal patterns and a totally relentless style. The only thing I really dislike about the songs are the solos, because they serve no purpose and aren't arranged with any thought, sort of like what Slayer does sometimes, but with no direction and no real sense of unity with the rhythm guitars at all. But the recording is definitely sub-par. The drums are rigid and flimsy, I can't really hear the bass well, the guitars sound okay but don't really have the fluidity that they need, and the vocals are mixed a little far out front. The whole thing just sounds really thin and hollow, there's no punch, and no real density. So, the end result is a boring CD that looks really lame, and could probably be pretty good under different circumstances, but who knows? They're not rewriting the book on the genre, nor are they overly exciting, but they have their moments. My honest suggestion would be for the vocalist to find a new band, because he's a maniac and I bet he could really do some damage with better music to go wild over.
[Disfigured]
Running time - 38:46, Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Dimensional Terror, Divide Dissect Destroy]
Disfigured Records - http://www.disfiguredrecords.com
