Disgrace
Grey Misery

Having reached the year 1992, it is time to talk about the debut of Disgrace, one of the very first bands to play death metal in Finland, having formed as early as 1987, at the dawn of the genre's history, and contributed to creating the local scene and style thanks to various demos, including the beautiful "Inside the Labyrinth of Depression," and then the equally valid EP "Debts of God".

The first album is, however, a bearer of novelties, as one can already guess by looking at the very sober cover, which sets itself apart from the classic old-school covers full of skulls and corpses, even though it contains all four songs that appeared on the previously mentioned demo, more precisely: "Unity's Interlude Dies Blind Tomorow," "The Chasm," "Waves of Hypocrisy Seas," and "Transcendental Dimension." The remaining tracks, on the other hand, are all unreleased and are notable for a stylistic shift that leans towards what would later be called death'n'roll after the release of "Wolverine Blues" by Entombed, and at this point, it is necessary to mention the sore point of the album, namely the production, once again by Timo Tolkki, which feels very "Clandestine" and tries to accommodate the band's new direction, but Disgrace are not Entombed and the result, at least in my opinion, suffers from it. In fact, this production mortifies the old tracks which, in their original version, represent everything Finnish death metal is with its typical hypnotic atmospheres, here deprived of that sense of darkness which the much rawer demo production could create, and on the other hand, it fails to sufficiently enhance even the new ones. Essentially, it's as if the change in style only succeeded halfway, and despite the good level of compositions, the album does not fully convince, what a pity.

Disgrace's career, however, unlike some compatriot groups, has continued without interruption with seven albums released and a definitive change of genre, starting from the mid-nineties, which saw them embrace rock and punk.