THE NAMELESS DISEASE

"The Nameless Disease" is the debut full-length studio album by French doom/goth/death metal act The Old Dead Tree. After recording their demo "The Blossom" in 1999 the band got a recording contract with the French independent record label Season of Mist. "The Nameless Disease" was released in March 2003 through that label.

The music alternates between softer acoustic parts and heavy parts with double bass drums. The music is generally very melodic. The vocals are both clean and growling. While I´m not too thrilled about the clean vocals I find the death metal growls great. They actually remind me of the vocal style of Mikael Stanne from Dark Tranquillity. Vocalist Manuel Munoz is the kind of growler that sounds like he means business. His clean vocals are a bit shaky and strongly accented though and while they are not bad they certainly don´t impress either. The lyrics on the album are centered around the suicide of the band´s first drummer Frédéric Guillemot (who commited suicide in August 1999).

The musicianship is strong. Tight interplay and some really powerful riffs. The tracks are generally well written and are able to hold my attention throughout the album. The sound production is professional and especially when the distorted parts kick in the music sounds really powerful. "The Nameless Disease" is overall a good debut album by The Old Dead Tree and I´m looking forward to listening to more from the band. I think this album shows great promise although there is room for improvement. A deserved 3.5 star (70%) rating.