Belarus. Not exactly the place one might expect to find an old school American death metal tailored band slugging it out, but here we have Disgod‘s 2008 debut slab Sanguine Scales to prove otherwise.
Now, I’m not as thoroughly versed in my native country’s death metal classics as others (I tend to lean towards the Swedish side of death metal), but from what I can tell, these Belorussian death dealers seem to draw heavy influence from the late 80’s proto-death of Flordian variety. Death and Morbid Angel spring to mind instantly with relentless blasting and double bass battery (“Undercover Enslavement”, “For the Transient”, “Ghouls”, “Sharp”), semi-thrashing nasty riffing (opener “Rising Hate”, “Grind Peace”, “Stabbin’ With A Nail”, “The Killed”) and dry, raspy vocals that somewhat bring to mind Max Cavalera 20+ years ago.
There’s not much by way of variety here – this is pretty straightforward, high octane thrashing death metal – but “Mirror of Mors”, “Sharp”, and closer “The Ancient Dreamer” feature some interesting guitar bits that made my ears perk up. The songs mostly fall just under or just over the 2 minute mark, leaving it’s 12 tracks to just fly by before you really know what the hell just happened. Short and brutal, the way an album of this ilk should be.
Disgod may not be doing anything to re-write the genre of death metal, but Sanguine Scales is a competent debut worth checking out for fans of the style.
