Review: Disentomb Deliver a Short but Pulverizing Display of Brutality on Nothing Above

You can always tell when someone has put that extra bit of time and effort into something that they are truly passionate about. It’s hard to describe, but there’s just something about it that makes the end result really pop and stand out amongst the competition. The quality of the final product is so much more refined and wholly satisfying, and it sticks with you afterwards. There’s an art to making the familiar feel fresh and exciting even if it’s already been done ad nauseum, and death metal is a prime example of this.

Fans of the genre have become noticeably jaded over time, with many voicing concerns that the well of new ideas has long since dried up, that there is no new ground to break anymore, and that death metal as a whole is in a slow but steady decline thanks to originality being in dangerously short supply. To that, I would say two things. First of all, nothing is truly original anymore; the time for that already passed long ago, so lighten up. If originality is your only metric for determining whether or not something is “good”, then all you’re doing is setting yourself up for a lifetime of frustration and disappointment, and that’s no way to live. Sure, it’s important to strive for excellence, and you might even get lucky and catch lightning in a bottle once in a while, but a thing doesn’t have to be brand spanking new every time in order to still be fulfilling or enjoyable, it just needs to be good for what it is.

And that leads me to my second point: it’s true that a lot of death metal bands sound the same, but Disentomb are not just any death metal band. These Australian heavyweights have been running a clinic on how to make an already oppressive style of music feel genuinely menacing since they first came onto the scene back in 2010, and their newest EP Nothing Above is a fantastic next step on their journey through the darkest depths of the fiery abyss. It has that same unmistakable aura of relentless ferocity that we have come to know and love them for, but there is also a palpable sense of refinement and indominable focus.

The opening track “Drear Prophecies” wastes absolutely no time, going from zero to 100 in an instant with a flurry of blast beats and furious riffs that combine haunting dissonance and barbaric chugging slams as only they can. It’s almost beautiful, or rather, it sounds like something that used to be beautiful but has now been warped and twisted into something vile and bursting with rage, like a fallen angel cast into Hell and violently transformed into a hate-filled demon. And that’s all before vocalist Jordan James opens his mouth and spews his monstrous gutturals, which have undergone a subtle but noticeable evolution in the five years since their last album, 2019’s The Decaying Light.

James has always had a very distinct voice which lends that much more of a unique and instantly recognizable identity to the band as a whole, somehow managing to create a completely organic multi-layered tone that defied all logic as far as I was concerned. I don’t know if it’s the way he was cupping the microphone, or if he was contorting the muscles in his face and positioning his tongue in some weird way, but whatever the secret ingredient was, it produced one of the most jarring death metal vocal styles we’d heard in years. There isn’t as much of that strange, almost whisper-like undertone on this EP, but the essence of it is still there, and this time around the vocals are much more gurgly and wet but with significantly clearer enunciation at the same time. It’s nothing if not impressive.

The other three songs follow the same basic formula, but never to the point of redundancy or repetition. There’s always a little added flair when you least expect it that perks you up and keeps you dialed in, like the quick bass break in “When the Black Begins, the Forked Tongue Speaks” or the unnerving slides in the main riff of the title track. The discordant, atonal guitars sound like they’re constantly unraveling themselves to reveal the infinite layers of malice and despair contained within. There’s a lot going on, and it would be easy to get lost in the sauce if it weren’t for Henri Sison’s masterful drum performance holding everything together like glue. He provides a vital sense of structure which channels and propels the rest of the music forward in a meaningful way, allowing them to hit the bullseye and effectively punctuate their declaration of sheer dominance.

And then, as if all of that weren’t cool enough, they went and threw a cherry on top with a phenomenal guest appearance by Jonny Davy of Job for a Cowboy on the third song “No God Unconquered”. Unsurprisingly, it’s powerful as hell and compliments Jordan’s demonic voice wonderfully, but it also almost doesn’t sound like him at all, which is really just a testament to Davy’s considerable talent and expert control over his tone and technique. Normally the dude has a very sharp trademark sort of twang in his voice, but this time around it sounds… moist. He clearly wanted to do something a little different since it’s not his band, and that willingness to experiment pays off in spades. I didn’t have a literal duet of gutturals on my 2024 bingo card, but here we are. I ain’t complaining.

Once the title track builds to a frenetic climax and peters out, the music fades back into the abyss from whence it came, and that’s all she wrote. Nothing Above is short, sweet, and to the point, and even though there are only four songs and the whole thing clocks in at less than twenty minutes, it still feels like a complete and perfectly balanced experience. It doesn’t necessarily leave you wanting more, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome either. It kicks down the door, fucks shit up like its life depends on it, then disappears as quickly as it came, leaving a swathe of carnage in its wake. It’s like a shark swimming in a sea of blood and viscera, rising up out of the darkness to tear you apart in a frenzy of agony and then diving back down into the void as soon as it’s had its fill.

This is a band who know exactly what they are trying to accomplish, and they are willing to take as much time as they need to ensure that anything they put out is the best possible iteration of what it can be. While a lot of bands try to stay relevant by putting out an album every year and a half or two years, Disentomb have a steady track record of waiting four to five years between every major release, and so far, that approach has worked tremendously in their favor. Right when everybody starts asking “Hey whatever happened to those guys, I haven’t heard anything from them in a while,” then WHAM, they pop up again and remind everyone why we got so hyped on them in the first place. Plus, I’m sure they all have day jobs and families that require their day-to-day attention as well, so instead of running themselves ragged to constantly stay in the spotlight and risk burning themselves out, they choose to work at their own pace and make the system work for them. As always, it was well worth the wait.

Nothing Above debuts today via Unique Leader Records, order your copy here

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