Disfear - A Brutal Sight of War - 1993

Disfear - Brings the Pain! 

This band serious rips me a new asshole. And that term is not used lightly. There has always been a soft spot for thuggish punk music deep in the blackness where my soul used to be.This was released in 1993 and had managed to get the band some attention. After listening to this beast anyone could fully understand why this album helped fund world tours and to give them the attention they deserve.  This crusty face ripper is one hell of an album. The energy is sky high here and doesn't let up for the entire CD. The thing that is odd is that the songs almost seem repetitive, but you have to expect it in some way whenever you're preparing to have your arsehole torn in two by some brutal crusty D-beat goodness.Repetitive might be too strong of a word. These songs are catchy.

The album kicks off with the title track, which is a ballsy move, and lets you know right away how hard they are about to bring it. With a monster crushing guitar sound and vocals so harsh that you can almost feel the sweat dripping and crowd going wild! The coolest part of this song is in 1:11 when the solo drops off into a lead that follows the riff and gives it a very "WAR" like sound. It follows that example in the second song as well only a bit different. The absolute best use of this technique is in the third track "Forced to Conform" at around :36 seconds into it.

There is something interesting that happens in the CD however around the 5th track "religion". You will notice that the mix of the album changed. As if they had to stop recording and come back a second time and record the rest of the tracks. It is not a big deal, it is just very odd. The guitars go from a sharper sound to a more thick sound that you may remember from Hellbastard's Ripper Crust CD. The vocals seem to change a lot too. The go from a lower "UGGHH" Napalm Death and Terrorizer sound to a slightly higher pitched and "almost OSDM" sound like on the first Pestilence album. The album still continues to kick copious amounts of ass.

If there is anything that kept this from getting in the high 95s would be that the first 4 songs are much more intense than the last 5. And you could say that they could have arranged the album different and would have gotten a better score, but there is a very specific reason that is beyond the change in the mix. Albums never get points taken off for having shitty "production". But, the first 4 songs has excellent guitar leads and solos in them and those are what really made the songs, besides the high energy and vocals. It's not that they dragged, they just carried parts of the songs between chorus' and verses. But the songs do continue to rape pretty hard anyway. It's not like anyone hearing those songs for the first time would hate the band or something.

This album is a definite must have for anyone remotely interested in the genre. This album is truly worth every penny and crushes right from the start!


90%


Favorite Tracks: A Brutal Sight of War, Forced to Conform, Vietnam Idag