Disentomb-Sunken Chambers of Nephilim

Before late 2010, the only brutal death bands I listened to were big names like Cryptopsy, Nile, Suffocation, Aborted, and a couple of underground bands such as Insision and Intestinal Strangulation. Here’s the path that led me to Disentomb: I ran across the album Couldn’t tell the Bodies Apart by Awaiting the Autopsy, got curious on where it came from, looked up the record label, found Amputated Vein Records, and Sunken Chambers of Nephilim was the most recent release they had posted. Amputated Vein Records has some of the best and most brutal music out there. They have continued to impress me with bands such as Bloodboil, Evisceration, Pathology, Eden Beast, Visceral Disgorge, Carnal Disfigurement, Guttural Engorgement, and most recently, Cerebric Turmoil. But out of all of those, Disentomb is my favorite by a long shot. They have impressed me to the point to where I bought their CD and shirt from Amputated Vein (which is from Japan, so it took about a month to get to my house in the western U.S.A.). And here’s a cool thing that I bet most of you didn’t know, All Shall Perish released their debut full-length under Amputated Vein! They later went on to re-release Hate.Malice.Revenge under Nuclear Blast.

I would call this traditional brutal death. I don’t know the whole “slamming” thing that I hear other brutal music fans talking about, I guess I’m still pretty new to the brutal/gore/grind scene. But I feel that I have enough knowledge and experience with the genre to say that this album is pretty damn amazing. This is one of the fewer underground brutal bands that are very tight and on time; the music is performed sloppily and it’s obviously been practiced well. The drummer is very good; he is a great kick-drummer and has a unique blast beat that really focuses on the snare where he has taken the buzz off. That’s another thing that I like about the drummer, he took the buzz off the snare drum, but it doesn’t sound annoying like in Preverse Recollections of a Necromangler by Waking the Cadaver.

I guess I wish that I could hear the bassist more often (being a bass player myself). Their vocalist does super deep inhaled growls (which is what initially grabbed my attention). I will admit that their guitarists aren’t really anything special; but they at least have what it takes to play the kind of music that they play. Their vocalist’s lyrical themes are mainly gore/violence oriented, but he expresses a large vocabulary, unlike some uncreative lyricists.

Disentomb really expanded my appreciation and interest in the underground brutal death scene. I have since come to discover other awesome bands such as Ezophagothomia, Gutted, Gortuary, Brutal Truth, General Surgery, Wormrot, Gridlink, Devourment, Cerebral Bore, Deeds of Flesh, Vomit the Soul, and Putrefy. This album has blown me away with its sheer brutality and musicianship. Those of you fans of BRUTAL music that haven’t heard this album, LISTEN TO IT! This album gets 19/20.