Dismember – Indecent and Obscene (1993)

Dismember Indecent And Obscene

Almost all metal bands eventually run out of ideas and revert to imitating their influences or repeating themselves. The former usually results in songs that are Frankenstein’s monster mashups of old ideas hoping to hop across the finish line without their sutures bursting leading to loss of limbs. The latter have no raison d’être beyond releasing the expected new record every eighteen months or so to put a product on the shelves that the label can push and the band can tour to support on a James Bond series type release schedule. Even a teenager saying “I want to kill everyone, drink beer, masturbate, and be as fucking metal as possible” shows more purpose than such aimlessness.

Indecent and Obscene was Dismember proving that in 1993 they had became at least as proficient musicians as their seventies and eighties idols. Dave Blomqvist took over the leader guitar duties from Nicke Andersson and added Mercyful Fate-like sweep-picked leads to the bluesy, Ritchie Blackmore-influenced solos. The songs continued in the vein of filthy Pieces EP with verse chorus verse bashers. The problem was they were slowed down, less distorted, and more lazily constructed: Beneath the Remains Sepultura minus a standard deviation or two in IQ. Every time Dismember play an interesting riff on this album, they allow it to wear out its welcome through repetition in brain-dead pop song structures. That is only when they have a good, counterpointed Carnage/Dismember riff. Most of the rhythm riffs are generic Autopsy riffs; riffs Autopsy stole from Celtic Frost, who stole it from Metallica, who stole it from some NWOBHM band who took it from AC/DC or The Stooges. These riffs were used just so Dismember could construct a basic d-beat song and sweep pick Guitar World readers’ faces off.

Matti Karki sounded just as rabid as ever but in every song sprouted off the title of the song in the chorus of the song as a vocal hook. This is the same as an awful Hollywood action film script containing dialogue saying the name of the movie in the movie, eg: “This is Con Air!” or “You Only Live Twice Mr. Bond!” Idiotic bridges kill off any tension too. “Why don’t you just kill yourself?” followed by breakdown of the main rhythm riff so all the hardcore kids for whom Suffocation was too heavy could slamdance before the air guitarable solo.

Dismember on Indecent and Obscene was Nuclear-Blasted into Cannibal Corpse before Nuclear Blast mandated all their bands sellout into death/black ‘n’ roll for the Bic-flicking festival crowd. While superior to most of the later work out of Sweden, Indecent and Obscene never approaches the transcendent Dark Recollections and Like an Ever Flowing Stream. The only praiseworthy aspects beyond the superficial icing are Fred Estby’s creative tom fills on songs such as “Sorrowfilled”. His underrated percussion is the only part building and resolving tension in these mediocre songs. That’s simply not enough to hold hessian attention. Decent material must still be composed and Dismember didn’t bother writing any worthy of repeated listening here.

 

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14 thoughts on “Dismember – Indecent and Obscene (1993)”

  1. Norman Ihne says:

    Ok but,

    how does this album hold up against their next one Massive Killing Capacity ?

    1. OliveFox says:

      Indecent makes Massive look like Hell Awaits, but that is because Massive makes Swift sound like Chopin.

      If you catch my drift.

      I agree with you on this album being pointless, but is it even considered a classic that need be torn down? I hardly hear anybody mention this album at all, even fans of Dismember’s later material. Young bands should take note though. How quickly a band can swan dive into artistic irrelevance after artistic triumph.

    2. Robert says:

      Hey guys! What do you guys think of Adorior’s “Author of Incest”? Give it a few listens, read the lyrics and tell me what you think.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_l4mTeFoT8

      1. hypocrite says:

        I think it sucks and you should shut up.

  2. morbideathscream says:

    I have like an everflowing stream, pieces ep and their complete demos compilation. For some odd reason I never bothered hunting down any of their other releases. Kinda like how I never bothered hunting down any grave album past into the grave.

    1. canadaspaceman says:

      morbideathscream ,
      I had maybe all the GRAVE cd’s around 2002-2003 and will tell you, the debut was the best thing they did. You saved money.

  3. g_money_christmas says:

    This isn’t so much about Dismember as it is about Nicke Andersson. My first introduction to him was through the Hellacopters which are my favorite non-metal band of all time. He has an awesome voice (he actually can sing) and is a pretty badass guitarist (even though he is more the rhythm guitarist). Despite pretty much playing every role on Clandestine by Entombed, I think my favorite work of his is with the Hellacopters. If you like Rock & Roll (real rock & roll. Not the bullshit on the radio) check them out. They split up but they have like 7 albums and plenty of great work to listen to.

    1. C.M. says:

      Interesting, didn’t know about that connection. Great recommendation though! I actually prefer Hellacopters to anything Dismembered or Entombed released.

      1. hypocrite says:

        Yeah Dismembered was a terrible band

        1. C.M. says:

          No mercy for fat fingers!

  4. fuck you Brett Stevens says:

    You know what, you’re all a bunch of morons for tearing down this album here!
    If you don’t like this album what’s the reason for writing on a website called “deathmetal.org”. You may as well talk shit about other deathmetal records of that era.
    This may not be regarded as a classic like ‘Like an everflowing stream’ but come to think of it it is almost BETTER and has great classic swedish deathmetal in the Stockholm/Sunlight style with melody and the real, honest metal spirit like ‘Reborn in Blasphemy’, ‘Dreaming in Red’, ‘Skinfather or ‘Case#Obscene’.
    Anyone who thinks he knows and likes the best swedish deathmetal records and ignores this one, clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and missing some of the best the genre has to offer!!

    Fuck off and die you assholes!

  5. Mythic Imagination says:

    Am I the only one who thinks that outside of a very few select albums the typical Swedish DM style really sucked?

    Nihilist and Carnage were great, debut’s by Dismember and Entombed were as well.

    Grave and Unleashed were decent.

    The rest? Really bad/boring/overplayed/generic.

    1. Uncanny, God Macabre, and Therion were good. Grotesque was great. Carnage / Dismember aren’t really even in the same genre as Entombed.

    2. morbideathscream says:

      There’s Necrophobic’s debut nocturnal silence, I guess they bit of a black metal touch, not typical Swedish death but a gem nonetheless.

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