Stop the meat grinder at the factory! We have a Polish band today. This can mean a few things: extreme quality mixed with blasphemy or dull heaviness mixed with ideological fanaticism (I’m being so polite here). Disloyal‘s new album, Divine Miasmata, is sending all the right signals: good band name, evil album name, and killer art. So, I’m entitled to have expectations, right? It even comes from Black Lion, one of the most consistent underground labels out there. Everything on paper makes more sense than your fake CV. Hopefully, Disloyal lies less than you.
Divine Miasmata is muddy and sticky. Is that an insult? Well, no, it’s intentional. This album falls on you like a thick layer of concrete that slowly solidifies and restrains your movement. I can appreciate how it creates this unholy atmosphere that has nothing divine about it. It’s aggressive and chaotic, but it always seems contained by its own production decisions. It’s not just relentless brutality; there are nuances in Divine Miasmata that allow us to submerge in its godless vibe. So if you wonder, yes, it’s heavy, but not because it’s constantly throwing mind-bending riffs at you, but because it’s constantly changing tempos and throwing bizarre musical ideas at you.
It surprised me to find sharp riffs that charge at us like cavalry. It’s almost like listening to Septicflesh without the “symphonic” component. There are also traces of more melodic concepts in Divine Miasmata. Great examples of this are “The Black Pope,” “1347-1352,” and “Stella Peccatorum,” where there are excellent melodic lines and hysterical solos that complement the rest of the onslaught well. Darkness and heresy are Disloyal‘s main goals, and in that sense, the band hasn’t lied to us. Yet, I do have some comments for feedback (the polite way people tell you at work you messed up).
Those three tracks I named were the highlights of the album. Though the rest is still interesting, it wasn’t as memorable. I’m in the middle of a horrendous conflict because all the ideas Disloyal offers here are perfect for me, but perhaps it’s how they’re all put together that makes it difficult for me to “feel it.” It’s not too dark, not too fast, not too dissonant or complex. It sits right between different sub-genres of Death Metal, and probably for most people, that will be a positive, but I couldn’t fully enjoy the whole experience. I would’ve loved more moments like the ones we get by the end of “The Ascension of Abaddon”.
Divine Miasmata is an album that will fit many basement-dwellers’ aesthetic palates. It actually sounds evil and has riffs that, though elaborate, you don’t need a music degree to follow and enjoy. I might have my reservations about its production decisions and overall style, but in principle, this is solid Death Metal that has its own identity. It’s not copying anyone’s homework; it’s doing the best it can! Maybe Disloyal can teach you a thing or two about work ethics, so give it a chance!
Label: Black Lion Records
Release date: 26 July, 2024
Website: https://www.facebook.com/disloyalband
Country: Poland
Score: A blasphemous poem in the middle of a mass, or maybe 3.0-3.5/5.0? I’m willing to change my mind later on, so pick the number you’d like the most!
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