Artist: Disentomb
Title: Sunken Chambers of Nephilim
Type: Album
Label: Obsidian Records

Obsidian records, it seems, were founded in 2005 to promote, manufacture and distribute Australian extreme metal. This is a good thing. Maybe more so than just about any genre of music, metal distinguishes itself by having world wide appeal, and therefore any avenue for Australian metal to reach a broader audience can only be a good thing. Scant wonder then that Disentomb are an Australian extreme metal band; to whit, a death metal band erring on the more brutal side of things. With a name like “Disentomb”, you might be expecting either a filthy, punk related sound like literally trillions of bands with the prefix “dis”, or grimy Swedish sounding old school metal as with the “entomb” suffix. Wrong on both counts. Perhaps the best comparison I can give is that this is akin to the aural experience of having your head held on a work bench while some frenzied freak goes to town on your melon with a ball-pein hammer.

Disentomb don't really go with all this “subtle” business, instead relying on the tried and tested method of trying to smash your face in with every track. In fact, the only ornate things on this disc are the song titles: “Purity Severed by the Antedeluvian”, any body ? In so much as brutal death metal is measured, the boys seem to have everything in place. So yes, there are the down tuned guitars and bass working at frenzied speeds, the drumming which is as frantic (and sounds like) a psychotic episode involving upturned coffee tins and a vocalist who brings the gutter into guttural. I listened intently, and a couple of songs in, I confess that my head was nodding, my visage was suitably be-grimmed and on a couple of the groovier passages, I even extended the air-claw-of-metal. However, once I had stopped the album, I found it really tricky to remember any of the tracks. While “in the moment”, the shock and awe of the sheer muscular musicality makes a rather breathless impression. Once the moment has passed, however, only “Sunken Chambers of Nephilim” made any impression on my synapses.

If the ultra brutal American style of death metal is your bag, then no doubt the violent capers of Disentomb will be right up your alley. They certainly seem to be no worse than any of their peers, and the occasional groove can lock in, but alas, overall my brain just isn't quick enough to be able to keep up with the ferociously busy sound in order to pick out more than morsels of the undoutedly well written and produced music on display. A quality album, I'm sure, but not one that really floats my boat. Sorry gents.

http://www.myspace.com/disentomb