When talking about Disgorge, I always find it necessary to specify that we're referring to the American Disgorge; this is so no one tells me, "but are these the ones from Forensick?" The answer is no, and they're not the Australian ones nor the Swedish ones either. They are the Disgorge from California.
These four guys reached the release of their fourth LP in 2005, "Parallels Of Infinite Torture," following their solid debut works, "Cranial Impalement" and "She Lay Gutted," and the controversial "Consume The Forsaken." Disgorge, from the beginning, have silenced anyone accusing them of lacking inspiration by completing a very personal sound that, while influenced by Deeds Of Flesh and Suffocation, quickly became the start of a new trend (and here I could spend the next two hours listing names). This "Parallels Of Infinite Torture" shows great musical growth that can also be considered a step back: these four guys had embarked on the same road as Deeds Of Flesh, the owners of their label Unique Leader, meaning they started veering into technicalities while completely neglecting emotion. This factor, combined with the excessive radicalism of "Consume The Forsaken," briefly shook this great name, risking sending it "prematurely to the Underworld" in the circle of "stuck on themselves." However, with this release, they keep the hopes alive and reclaim the immediacy of their early works with a newfound maturity.
The result is an excellent album that, by breaking through the typical Disgorge rigidity, achieves the opposite effect of what one might imagine; it makes it even more violent. The songs, now much more distinguishable and less monotonous, seem more aggressive and move away from the word "noise" to come closer, though not by much, to the word "music." The technique, as one might expect, reaches excellence; to play this type of Brutal Death, one must possess considerable skills, and the Californian quartet understands this well. The drummer has finally found a way to showcase his skill beyond sheer speed; while in the previous album he assumed he could astonish everyone simply by "stepping on the gas," now he focuses more on astonishing passages and daring rhythms, exceeding more in slowdowns (always full of virtuosity, indeed, even more challenging than accelerations). In my opinion, the guitarists are among the best currently available in the field, and their riffing becomes increasingly intricate and twisted. "Twisted" certainly better conveys the idea than "intricate": their way of playing has nothing linear, it stretches, compresses, folds back on itself, rears up, and plunges, inevitably dragging with it the unfortunate listener. In this respect, you have nothing to worry about, Disgorge have not softened up at all, and as "Consume The Forsaken" managed to physically exhaust, this album does as well.
The bass performance is definitely good, not always at the forefront but a protagonist in some exquisite breaks. The vocalist, well, you either love him or hate him; initially, I was part of the latter group, but over time I realized that there isn't another voice that marries this proposal decently. His growling is quite snarling, and like everything else, quite filtered: however, a lower growl risks blending with the music, not to mention that its longevity is unmatched (although it might make the sound too compact). The songs, among which I mention the opening pair "Revealed In Obscurity" and "Enthroned Abominations," are extremely tight, spasmodic, devoid of light. For about three-quarters of an hour, you will only know a merciless and enigmatic violence, embedded in apparently meaningless lyrics even though they're easier and shorter (and thus less charming) than those of "Consume The Forsaken." These are Disgorge; a band that decided to say goodbye to any experimentation to dig deeper into Brutal Death and ensure that even in 2005 it remains the most extreme genre on the market (excluding those genres that use electronic instruments like Drone and Industrial).
For this reason, they are, in my opinion, the group that best represents this movement in recent years; these guys have been able to self-correct (somewhat like Marx who corrected Hegel with Feuerbach and Feuerbach with Hegel, if I forgot some H in Feuerbach don't be nitpicky) and have produced an album that is one of the most representative of 2005. Recommended only for masochists, people stuck in traffic, and laid-off workers.
PS: whoever figures out who the cover art parodies wins a set of stripped screws.
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