heavymetaltribune : 12/20 | Having already been through a name change (from the previous The Reapers) and changes in musical genre, Disease Illusion releases their debut full length album, Backworld, with at least 5 years of musical experience under their belts. Being able to switch from a band playing heavy/thrash metal to one that plays melodic death metal is perhaps a sign of the band's versatility, with the ability to switch their playing styles accordingly and this certainly bodes well for people who have never heard of Disease Illusion prior to this.
Their experience and influences definitely show on Backworld, as the band has managed to incorporate elements from a number of other metal subgenres, though their foundation is undoubtedly melodic death metal. The album opens with Last Murder, with a lead guitar line that reminds listeners of other influential melodic death metal bands such as Scar Symmetry, and one almost expects the clean vocals of Christian Alvestam to greet the listener after that, but what we get instead are the growls of vocalist Ferrucc, alternating between higher-pitched growls and lower-pitched ones with an almost hollow quality, displaying his vocal range and versatility. From Ashes to Dust even sees him utilising some clean vocals as well.
For the most part, the songs on Backworld are melodic, with lead guitars that are always playing a melody on top of the rhythm section, and this provides the album with some sort of an emotional touch, topped by the desperate-sounding pleas of vocalist Ferrucc, especially on tracks like Eyes of Medusa. Guitarists Dario and Feed also provide the wankery on the album, though From Ashes to Dust sees them take a different style through the usage of clean and emotional guitar solos.
Though melodic death metal used to be a genre that I enjoy, there are certain things that melodic death metal bands tend to do that eventually put me off, with one major put off being the inclusion of metalcore-ish breakdowns (and I can't really blame the bands seeing how closely melodic death metal and metalcore are generally related) and unfortunately almost all tracks on Disease Illusion's Backworld contain such moments, affecting the enjoyment of the album, though fans of breakdowns might probably like this a lot. Furthermore, the transition between more melodic moments to an aggressive section leads to the listener almost expecting an emo-clean vocals to start whining, but fortunately the band does not include this to cause suffering to the ears of the listener.
While Disease Illusion brings nothing new to the melodic death metal table with Backworld, overall the album would probably manage to please fans of melodic death metal in general, with the catchy music that the band has written and the excellent musicianship on the album.
2012-03-09 15:10:17
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