Review Summary: Technicality, groove, melody and doom in equal measure.
James Murphy's stints in several classic death metal bands saw an unusual breadth of styles, from the stomping mid-paced groove of
Obituary to the stripped down aggression of
Cancer and the progressive tinges of
Death. With Disincarnate he incorporates all of these influences into an unusually doomy tech-death romp. Accompanied by relative no-names Bryan Cegon, Jason Carman and Tommy Viator, and produced by Colin Richardson, Dreams of the Carrion Kind shows what Murphy can do when he's in the driver's seat.
Colin Richardson's productions around this time were becoming increasingly sophisticated, with the likes of Heartwork and ...For Victory adding an additional level of polish to the classic death metal sound he and Scott Burns defined. This album likewise is a refinement of that mould, with the usual scooped guitars and clicky drums, but denser and thicker than other productions at the time. Coupled with this sonic power is the varied tempos that the band uses; Murphy seems comfortable in writing in basically any tempo by death-metal standards, with doomy 5th harmonies in
Beyond the Flesh giving way to blast beat driven tremolo picking and mid-paced grooves with remarkable ease.
All this would be nice window dressing but not a done deal if it weren't for the uniquely hooky riffing that occupies every track. Literally every track has at least one riff that blows most of the competition out the water.
Stench of Paradise Burning opens typically enough with classic death metal tremolo picking but really hits its stride once it drops the pace a bit and pulls out a gut wrenching groove and some doom riffs that'd sit well enough on an
Incantation record, let alone a tech-death one.
Monarch of the Sleeping Marshes and
Confine of Shadows intricate progressive riffs amaze in their own right but slickly transition into crushing grooves and harmonized licks.
Sea of Tears and
Entranced best show off the doom side of their sound, pairing up sinister harmonies with meatheaded riffs. Of note as always are Murphy's solos, which have a healthy balance of neo-classical technicality and musicality which is otherwise rare in old-school death metal.
Entranced especially sticks out with a wah-drenched solo that transitions into the darkest and heaviest groove of the album.
In spite of the same bags of tricks popping up across the album, the quality of the different hooks and the variety of tempos leads to every track feeling distinct and as a result it breezes by. The pacing is altogether phenomenal for a death metal album, dropping new extremes either in technicality, melodic or doomy vibes with each passing track. With consistently great songs and some of the catchiest riffs in the genre, you can't go wrong with this album.
