dISEMBOWELMENT

[Transilvania]

This band is old news and all, but "Transcendence into the Peripheral" is currently one of my favorite albums. I feel that it is on par with "The Rack" (then again, I only listened to The Rack about two times).

When speaking to other metalheads about this album, they tell me it is extremely boring and one-dimensional. I usually respond with something like: "Just listen to the first track, it is a landmark in ambient doom-death".

Maybe they think it is boring because they listen to about only 2 minutes of all the "heavy" songs. Anyway, opinions?

[nothingnowhere]

Could never get into this band. It's better than most doom bands, but they still have a tendency to be too repetitive that plagues most mediocre doom metal. It seems more like a good idea that was never quite fulfilled, but gets hyped up anyway. I'll stick to Skepticism and Ras Algethi.

[Transilvania]

The song length is unnessecary maybe they could have edited out about 2 mins of repeated material on the longer tracks. But it is a journey worth taking at least once.

That being said, I totally fell for this album.

[lolmetal]

I can see where they are coming from, but I would say they are great.  It is probably the best attempt to fuse death and doom (The Rack isn't doomy enough, or at least i just prefer d.)  The acoustic overlays and ambient passages are what really makes it a winner though.  It is tempting to downplay how great it is because of it's relative simplicity, but then again there is nothing like it.  Be sure to get the three CD compilation.  The first one is T into the P, the other two are demo versions and some nice ambient pieces.  On the last one there is also a cover of Necrovore - Slaughtered Remains.

[HessianObscura]

This is a really good album. What would be drawbacks for hundreds of other Doom Metal bands (although, given this band's ancestry and thematics, I would place them firmly in the Death Metal camp) are not so for diSEMBOWELMENT because 'Transcendence...' is tightly bound to its concept, which itself is deeper than the typical DS BS. The composition is intelligently arranged but unlike the more compacted Death Metal narratives that we might be used to, it demands a far more attentive listening posture. Infact, I've found this to be one of the best examples of Death Metal that's conducive to 'meditational' states because of its structure. This consists in the leitmotivic development of that first tremelo riff you hear in 'The Tree of Life and Death', which spans the entire album, taking different forms and dictating the rhythmic riffs it's set against, until we come to that final Nirvanic vision. It reminds me of the subtle unsubtlety of Bruckner's fourth symphony, following the development that initial mystic fanfare. I guess what I'm trying to urge is more patience with this album because it might turn out to be way more rewarding than just 'better Doom/Death Metal'.

[Humanicide]

There is nothing noticeably wrong with this album so far as I can see. The songwriting keeps my attention for the entirety of the album. It is one of the few I can listen to first track to last all the way through without needing to skip anything. People who think it is boring/overlong either don't like doom or don't have a good attention span.

[Antihuman]

Currently one of my favorites as well.  The length of the songs and the relatively low amount of riffs etc. allows each of the parts the space it needs to breathe and fully develop.  Nothing is crammed in too tightly.  This seems to be a more effective route than the normal tactic of intense speed + intense everything else.  This album manages to be at once very assertive and very introspective.

[Transilvania]

This album channels such a mystic aura. It scratches the metal itch and the ambient itch, conceptually hitting both as well. It is one of my favorites.

I'd say the best track is The Tree of Life and Death.