DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The sound is muddy and the vocals from the bottom of a coal mine. The same for the downtuned guitars, bass and drums. This is very dirty music. But the avant-garde, rap and funky bass adds something extra and very good to this album. It really stands out from the rest of the crowd, this album.

This album is really good and it succeed in what it is trying. I would recommend it to everyone who like their metal bent out of shape. The music here most definate is that.

3 stars

Disharmonic Orchestra was basically a simple death metal/ grindcore act with few experimental moments on their early releases, but with "Not to be Undimensional Conscious" they earned their avant garde/ experimental tag. The foundation in the music is still death metal with growling vocals but with lots of experiments along the way. The first thing I noticed was that the bass is very prominant in the mix. It has a life of its own and doesn´t follow the guitar much. The drums are fusion-influenced and sometimes remind me of the drums on the "Unquestionable Presence (1991)" album by Atheist. So a very interesting change to the rythm section compared to earlier releases by the band. There are also several experiments with polyrythms and odd time signatures that should please fans of the genre. I generally enjoy the sometimes odd experiments on the album but I have to admit that the rap part in "The Return of the Living Beat" somewhat turns me off.

The album was recorded and mixed at the famous Sunlight Studio in Stockholm, Sweden by just as famous producer Tomas Skogsberg (check almost any Swedish death metal release from the early nineties and Tomas Skogsberg was involved as producer). It was produced by Disharmonic Orchestra and Tomas Skogsberg and the result is very enjoyable IMO. The power trio sound works very well here.

So "Not to be Undimensional Conscious" is a massive improvement over earlier releases by Disharmonic Orchestra and while the album isn´t perfect (at least not to my ears) it should certainly be considered a classic experimental/ avant garde death metal album. Essential or not my rating is 3.5 stars. I might upgrade my rating to 4 stars some time in the future though. I sense this album is a grower.

I listened to "Expositionsprophylaxe" back in the early nineties. A friend of mine had the album on LP and he got me a cassette copy which I listened to on occasion. It never did much for me though and listening to "Expositionsprophylaxe" again after all these years doesn´t help much on my initial impression. A 2 star rating is warranted.

If you know the "Disharmonic Orchestra / Pungent Stench" split EP from earlier that same year, there are really no surprises listening to the music on "Successive substitution". Simple grindcore/death metal with growling vocals, blasting drums, heavy mid-paced death metal parts and some rather imature musicianship are pretty much the order of the day on "Successive substitution". The sound quality isn´t very good, but it´s fortunately not too lo-fi for me to enjoy.

"Successive substitution" is a hardcore fan release IMO and I can´t really recommend it to anyone else. If you´re interested in listening to the very early days of the band I would recommend listening to the split EP with Pungent Stench instead. "Successive substitution" gets a 1.5 - 2 star rating from me.

The music style that the two bands play on this EP is a far cry from the experimental/ avant garde metal of later releases by Disharmonic Orchestra and the Mentors influenced splatter/ gore death´n´Roll of later releases by Pungent Stench (songtitles like "Klyster Boogie" and "Splatterday Night Fever" from the later part of Pungent Stench discography says it all now don´t they?). Both bands play simple grindcore/death metal on this split release and while that style isn´t necessarily the most interesting thing in my world (unless it´s something really special) the music does have a certain primitive charm to it that I enjoy. Growling vocals, blasting drums and fast played hardcore influenced guitar and bass riffs is the order of the day. There isn´t much difference between the sound of the two acts but if I have to chose I´ll say that I find Pungent Stench output to be the most interesting part of the split. The sound quality is better on the Pungent Stench material too.

All in all this is a rather rare release if you find it in one of the limited coloured vinyl versions (500 in green vinyl, 250 in yellow vinyl and 250 in Orange vinyl). The quality of the release isn´t that high though and IMO this is mostly a fan item. It´s not really poor but not that exciting either. A 2 star rating is warranted.