Germany's Disbelief has been around for awhile, releasing
a quartet of demos in the nineties before debuting in 1997
with a self-titled effort, and have recorded steadily since
then, now up to six albums with the released of 66Sick
in 2005.
They are usually placed in the death metal camp, but based
on 2003's Spreading The Rage (the band's fifth effort,
and the only one listened to here), death metal doesn't
seem like an accurate description.
Sure,
Karsten Jäger's harsh roar is clearly in the death metal mold,
but that's about the only part of this band that really
qualifies as death metal at all.
Instead, the focus here is on mid-tempo, semi-thrashy, groove-y
layered riffing,
almost atmospheric in places and even bordering on
alterna-metal ("It's God Given" is one example, actually a very
good heavy riff here), and
some rambling bass lines are a welcome addition, given how bass
players are so often buried in the mix.
On the plus side, the basic style on Spreading The Rage is
quite original, drawing as it does from several genres to forge
a pretty unique style.
On the minus side, the songs tend to run together after awhile,
and Jäger's vocals, tortured and forceful though they are,
just seem a bit one-dimensional here.
It's not quite clear who the target audience is for this band,
since they don't neatly fit anywhere, but fans of modern, dark,
alternative-tinged deathy thrash metal should check these guys out.
