Where on earth do you begin with this fourth album from Germany’s Disillusion, a band I saw earlier this year supporting Obscura and reviewed which you can read about here. The band teased us with a few songs from this new album but they did not prepare me for the vast immersive soundscape that is encapsulated in ‘Ayam’, which means ‘The One’ apparently. Opening your new album with an eleven minute monster is either brave or incredibly stupid but the German’s pull it off without a blink of an eye or a stutter as ‘Am Abgrund’ shows with scintillating stature. The progressive death metal band has no bounds to its creative ingenuity, undeniably the opener flows through copious riffs and melodies all balanced by the exceptional clean vocal styling with gradations in tone and texture you don’t often hear. Added to that the opener is supremely hefty too, not brutal, it just has an opacity that makes the album dark at times as ‘Tormento’ follows, a song I heard at their gig.
‘Tormento’ is the shortest tune here and contrasts massively with the opener only in duration as it is still drenched in progressive charm as the clean vocals alternate with a harsher variety that reminded me of Burton C. Bell. ‘Driftwood’ is majestic, the acoustic opening is possessed by riveting charm and emotion, its poignancy has a stirring atmospheric backdrop, especially as the delicate strings are added. This album is packed with musicality as the band turn their creative guile to incorporate a raft of guest musicians covering cello, flute and trumpet to name a few and the results are staggering.
‘Abide The Storm’ is up next and again we get double digits in duration, the songs flowing meandering and dramatic flair is wonderful as a cinematic poise is felt through the riffs and elongated guitar pieces that are very similar to Opeth in their mid-era phase, as brass instrumentation filters in sublimely. I especially liked the subdued vocal here, sort of like a distant radio in the background whispering to you from afar as the song shifts to dense progressive deathliness superbly. Here the vocals change again, offering a more brutal tone that is barked which for some inexplicable reason made me write down Barney (Napalm Death), I have no idea why but they just reminded me of him.
Closing the album is the wondrous doublet of ‘From The Embers’ and ‘The Brook’ though the previous two tracks of ‘Longhope’ and ‘Nine Days’ I could quite easily have expounded upon. However, ‘From The Embers’ is where I shall focus my attention as the song has a haunting posture where you know and expect a surge in power to ensue, and it does as that cinematic aura rears up hugely sending the song down streets of sparkling sonic intelligence and leaves ‘The Brook’ to end this stupendous release. With a synth opening the song is a tad different, slightly laid back offering a soundscaping that billows over you like a soft blanket. The songs dulcet despondency smoothly transitions to a meandering magnificence that gives you goose bumps amidst its tearful soul stirring melodies and mournful vocals.
An unbelievable album from Germany’s Disillusion, one that all progressive metal and rock fans should be checking out and equally those of the melodic death metal slant should be investigating too as it is breath-taking from start to finish.
(10/10 Martin Harris)
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