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Released on April 25, 2015 via Memento Mori
Disrupted are from Sweden and they play Swedish Death Metal. Surprised? I’ve been a Swedeath fan since I heard both Entombed’s Left Hand Path and Dismember’s Like An Ever Flowing Stream. The two iconic bands and their respective landmark albums both feature different approaches to Swedeath, and Disrupted‘s Morbid Death admittedly sounds sandwiched between the two, a little punk-influenced like Entombed, the catchy shred riffs similar to those of Dismember. In fact, track six, ‘Maimed and Devoured’, features a main riff that sounds a bit like Dismember’s ‘Override the Overture’.
It’s hard to be a Swedeath band and escape the comparisons to the aforementioned iconic bands of the sub-genre. More than a clone, Disrupted like the breakdowns quite a bit, using heavy downpicked chords to slow down and send the front row to the pit. There’s quite some blasting going on when the band speeds it up. I’d say they sound close to typical modern Swedeath these days. Clandestine-influenced Vanhelgd, and hardcore-infused Gatecreeper are particular exceptions. It’s almost like Disrupted want to play doom on occassion, playing like Coffinworm with the buzzsaw sound, before blasting like they’re Napalm Death.
There’s a raw quality to the performances. The production enhances the material without sounding too digital, somewhat in the way Bloodbath recorded their first album, Nightmares Made Flesh, and not ‘digitalesque’ Resurrection Through Carnage.
Still, the buzzsaw guitar is captured in all its down-tuned glory. Thank heavens for bands who re-create Swedeath circa 1990, even those that aim to infuse different elements to the Swedeath template in order to create something more original. Swedeath can’t die. Disrupted helps feed the furnace by adding stacks of blood-soaked brutal breakdowns and high-speed shreds on Morbid Death.
The songs aren’t the catchiest, but the riffs are still easy to like. The drums can barely be heard, and the bass is like an oily blanket over the guitars. The vocals are ace, sounding quite like they’re proper for ritual death. The lack of lead guitar segments makes the material sound samish, and the tracks blur the lines on repeat listens, but fans of Swedeath will still eat this up. If you can’t get enough of Swedeath and you like bands such as Mordbrand and Paganizer, I can’t see you skipping on Disrupted‘s Morbid Death. Sure, melodic Swedeath like Dismember’s Like An Ever Flowing Stream might be far better, but how many albums of that quality did Dismember do? If you can’t stand anything but iconic, I suggest you give this a stream before ordering a copy of the CD, else, if you’re down with Swedeath the way some of us are down with Satan, support Disrupted‘s Morbid Death and race to Memento Mori Records’ website immediately.
