Originally written by Erik Thomas
The complete lack of originality in Nuclear Blast’s recent offerings Imperanon, Extomorf and this stuns me. Thick with high production values and a heavy coat of new car smell, these releases attempt to blind the listener with these traits that essentially mire stunningly mediocre bands. Germany’s Disbelief are a sort of thrash death hybrid that come across as Dew-Scented on valium mixed with Machine Head: dressed up in a stout Andy Classen production, the albums sounds great, but the hour of continually mid paced chunky riffs get very old, very quick, with no lasting appeal.
Disbelief aren’t really bad per say, if anything they are the very definition of solid, but solid doesn’t make an impression anymore, especially when it relies on its production to carry itself. The generally mid paced gait of the entire album soon wraps itself up in thick grooves that repeat over and over with little difference. Where fellow Germans Dew Scented pummel you with the same neck breaking pace over and over, Disbelief slowly pound you with a lull inducing mid range, and a lack of tempo changes and dynamics. If anything, the rare time changes only shift into a lower gear.
The album is heavy, and some of the Machine Head inspired grooves carry some weight, but have virtually no character or depth, in fact despite the superficial heaviness of the album Spreading the Rage is one of the shallowest albums I’ve ever heard. There’s marginal technicality and urgency, as it just plods along in a more depressed state more than anything.
Granted, vocalist Karsten Jäger’s voice is the only aspect of the music that gives it some form of identity. His massive bellows that start “No More Lies”, and “Inside My Head” are impressive starts to sluggish songs, and his varied approach to the title track, sprinkle some measure of character, but still doesn’t warrant anything but passing listens, due to the single minded pace of the album.
Many listeners may enjoy the simplistic, almost throwback visage of this album, as it has a pseudo death metal undercurrent (mainly carried by Jäger) that those not wanting technical overdose may appreciate, but even when the album attempts to quicken its pulse (“Death Will Score”, “For Those Who Dare”), it’s still nothing more than blindingly average. Even a cover of Killing Joke’s “Democracy” and the attempted pulsing Fear Factory like epic mood shift of album closer “Back to Life” can’t give the album any threads of individuality.
Pick this album up maybe if you see it used for a couple of bucks, but there’s just far much more interesting metal out there today.
Stumpfen Sie ziemlich ab.
