I know people who sing the praises of Polish progressive metal band Disperse. My own experience of them, which amounts to listening to one of their two previous albums “Living Mirrors” (2013) and a live performance, has been one of slight disappointment, caused by the fact that they haven’t tipped me over the edge and into a land of delight and wonderment.
This album starts nicely with “Stay”. Disperse mix it all up with a progressive whirl, softer vocals and a technical metal finale. The djenty tech and shimmering drums give the next song “Surrender” its energy but those soft vocals undermine the power for me. I looked at the lyrics to see if they conveyed anything worth listening to, but they don’t and in fact are the standard Euro prog slush lyrics, which do nothing for the genre. Others will disagree. I do like the vibe of the instrumentals though. I decided not to pay any attention to the lyrics after “Bubbles” as they make no sense and this isn’t a critique of the band’s English language ability. If I have interpreted them correctly, they’re classic prog i.e. about thoughts, emotions and self-doubt, and maybe could strike a chord with someone feeling vulnerable, but they’re not profound. What does strike a chord is the dynamic instrumental development of the song, except that it’s too short to get into. Is there an unadvertised time constraint? If Disperse want to embed their music into my head, they need to develop their passages. I didn’t like “Tomorrow” very much but there is one sublimely colourful passage mid way through this three minute fifty second track. Disperse’s music has range and indeed colour, and it does hang together sometimes, but I saw this as a series of enjoyable cameos and great guitar playing rather than as a satisfying whole. I loved the bouncy happiness of “Tether”’s rhythm and for once even found that the vocals mirrored the spirit of the song. Good sound effects, a jazzy feel and a catchy chorus – “Tether” is where it’s at. Dare I suggest that Disperse’s future lies in sophisticated, feel good pop? That’s only my opinion of course.
After the jolly “Tether”, Disperse do what I’d hoped they would do, pull together their ideas and enhance them with sound effects on the moody “Sleeping Ivy”. But it drifts away almost as if they’d run out of ideas, and so even this track fails to hit the epic heights. The chorus, which fitted in nicely at the start, finishes up almost as a contractual obligation. Seeing that “Does It Matter How Far” is nine minutes in length, I was hopeful that Disperse could showcase what they’re capable of. Sure enough, a glitzy instrumental born of prog and a bit of jazz fills the first half. If the ensuing vocals were suppose to liven it up, well they don’t. “Does It Matter How Far” is a good soft prog instrumental and that’s about it. I thought forewords were supposed to be at this the beginning but this one comes as the eighth track in the form of a short and interesting instrumental, which in another setting could be a good intro for something else. A nice feature of this album is the subtle harmonies and they sit quietly in the background of the funky and groovy “Neon”, a straight line song which runs out suddenly and inexplicably. The funky groove is retained for “Gabriel”. The essential song is rather dreary, except for one twiddly technical passage, which leads into a dark prog jazz section – it could have continued but this is not the way of Disperse, who provide temptation with bite-sized chunks and no more. The technical vibe of this track and “Kites” has an air of Riverside. When it’s good, it’s good and “Kites” has a teasing Eastern voice in the background at one point. The album finishes on a strong note with a colourful rhythmic beat.
Disperse have talent and good ideas, but for one reason or another “Foreword” doesn’t hang together. There are good and even sublime bits but in the band’s quest for something that I am and possibly they are unable to define, I found this album all over the place and exasperating.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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