Maxilla Prolabitur, the newest release from Madrid-based sludge/stoner doomers Dispain, is an album I should absolutely love. The riffs are heavy, the vocals are vicious, and the production strikes a nice balance between clean and gritty – all things I’m a big fan of.
But Maxilla Prolabitur falls flat. Sure, the album isn’t the most original thing in the world, but doom metal is a genre that exists to worship idols, so that’s hardly a fault. And the idols being worshipped here are all bands I love – Sleep, Iron Monkey, Dystopia, Electric Wizard, and a bit of Amebix added in for good measure. Doomy, punky sludge? How could you go wrong?
But Dispain just don’t pull it off. Despite the quality of the riffs, Maxilla Prolabitur just feels lifeless. It has the things a good sludge album should have, but manages to be less than the sum of its parts. Upon listening to the first riff in ‘XXVII,’ you anticipate a massive incoming titan that will crush everything around you, but that titan never arrives.
Part of the problem is that the songs on Maxilla Prolabitur follow the same general idea the entire way through. There’s a fast-paced moment here, a clean section there, but not enough to break up the monotony. Yes, I did just get done saying that doom isn’t exactly brimming with originality, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with repeating the same thing over and over again.
There needs to be a build-up and release of tension that is lacking on Maxilla Prolabitur. We get the same tempo, the same Sleep/Iron Monkey hybrid riffs, the same not-quite-crushing, not-quite-driving feel the entirety of the album. A more diverse mix of their influences would have done Dispain well here.
It’s a shame that I can’t get into this, because there’s plenty of really good ideas here. Maxilla Prolabitur would make a great EP if some of the fat were trimmed down. And if Dispain had a greater variety of ideas, they could make a really great album. But for now, they fall short of the mark.
