Rating: 1.6

Country: Netherlands

Release Date: 2001

Record Label:
Unique Leader

Track list:
1. Rhizome
2. Abolition Of Impediment
3. Reason Rejected
4. Condensed Conditions
5. Masses Conformed [MP3]
6. Unfolding Disposition
7. Generative Patterns
8. Critical Emulation
9. Opposite Extremities

Total playing time: 32:01

Band Website: Disavowed

Disavowed - Perceptive Deception

Robbe V - Drums
Gerben - Guitar
Robbe K - Vocals
Nils - Bass

Any time I ever listen to this, it's forced. Never do I say “Ah man! I TOTALLY know what musically would hit the spot, quench my thirst, satiate my desires! DISAVOWED!”. Never have I recommended, suggested or proposed anyone to listen to this band. They (Disavowed) to me, are one of those bands that exemplify everything I don't like about the current state of death metal (most of which I do enjoy though). So once again here I am FORCING a listen-exclusively this time for the sake of reviewing. Here are my thoughts as I yet again try to like this.

Immediately blasting drums, buried guitars and ranting vocals great me-there is no human qualities, no soul, no heart, no passion. Just 3 distinct sounds happening at once. And this is one of the more convincing and catchy tracks: "Rhizome". And why? Because of those stupid mosh riffs-my god I hate those to no end, JUNJUNJUNJUNJUNJUNJUNJUNJUN! That's not a fucking riff, Immolation writes riffs, Vader writes riffs. MOST bands write riffs, this is just sound occurring. After the “breakdown” we are given the intro piece once more and back to the “mosh”. Quite a stale way of going about writing a song. Blast section, Slam Section, Blast section cut in half, Slam section doubled, then right back to what started it all. Bleh! I'm already ready to give this a “3.0” at best. It's a goal in itself to not just skip the track because by now patience wearing thin has turned to anger evolving. This sucks.

Next song "Abolition of Impediment". The drummer is just rolling right along, never really stopping to “think”, fills are compromised of short rolls or quick crash smacks. It's (almost) entertaining the first time he does it but the pattern regenerates itself into obscurity. I've been told by friends of the band me that the band merely “writes” “riffs” over the drum patterns-which is obvious because as rapid as the drum work is-it's only blasting and doing fills that are humanly possible but sound mechanical. Man, this is hard to enjoy… The vocals for this specific track are spiced slightly but still mostly it's just the guy rambling about whatever, and he's just as bad as the drums in form of monotony and linear tendencies. In one word I would describe him as “insensate” (meaning it sounds almost unconscious how he is spewing all of his vocal lines out-it‘s happening but he‘s not making it happen if you catch my drift).

Next is "Reason Rejected" which has some variety. Instead of a whole first minute of BLAST! There is some double bass and groove. Finally the guitars shine, and I am thankful. This song IS passable. The vocalist is holding back a little and that's such a welcomed deviation on his part. The more I listen to this song the more I am feeling willing to bump the score back to “3.0”, but while I am tolerating this much more than tracks 1 and 2 it's STILL monotonous and they STILL go for the “blur of blasting and rambling”. By the way, these lyrics are fucking stupid-not literally stupid like Waco Jesus but “what a waste” stupid. Give me slaughtered human pigs any day over pretentious self help (or is this criticism they are writing about?) guidelines by some Dutch guy I‘ve never met.

Back to the music, track 4 "Condensed Conditions". Once again, blasting themselves deep into a black hole of blandness, a “breakdown” riff quickly follows that I'm sure I'll hear 10 more times before this song is done.“What” I ask myself is the X-factor this band lacks? Many bands follow a set pattern that they never truly shake-even Death did that (in terms of song structuring), but with Disavowed is just spreads themselves wide open enough to point out every weakness in their “song writing”.

Track 5 comes in "Masses Conformed", a bit like track 3 in it's uncanny ability to distance itself from 65% blast 35% breakdown routine. But it still kinda sucks…it may not hyperblast for a minute straight, but it still runs a tolerable riff 7 feet below our earth's surface. What is Disavowed, the metalcore of brutality? I must resist urge to skip tracks…score is currently downhill sliding into the “2.4” range. Will an upcoming track save this album? Hell no it won't… Jesus why won't this song end already. Disavowed needs to stick to 2.5 minutes per song at most.

Track 6 comes around, the title doesn't matter and neither does the song structure, they blast…for a while…I cringe, for a while. This is killing me. I am SO listening to Gorguts next. This song won't take ‘em down past “2.4” but won't raise them a tenth of a point either. The mosh riff on this is a mosh riff, and man do I hate mosh riffs. If I want a mosh riff I'll listen to Massacre, now THAT was a DEATHMETAL band! This is like, “gruntstuff”. They got the “death” in spades (actually-they don't, because the lyrics are “smart”) but this ain't metal. This can't make you pump your fist, and after listening to this, I can only listen to a band that does…

Track 7, blast/guitar mess/bland vocals again…no identity except the lame mosh breakdown. Which sounds like a tape slowing down…then back to the money maker(?) a guitar mess, continuous blast and numbing vocals. If you are thinking about buying this-just don't. If you want brutality that'll crush your skull and you can actually go back to try Gorgasm or Beheaded, this band is just insulting to the intelligence they falsely display.

C'mon track 8 were are you? Not that I'll enjoy you when you're here…Ah there you are, you suck too. Like tracks 3 and 5 this song doesn't totally blast itself into perpetual motion, oh no wait, it just did. DAMNIT!

So far all this band does is make me want to listen to ANYONE else. Y'know if these guys wrote music as “intelligent” as the lyrics-wouldn't they throw in a bizarre time change or some kind of solo or…I dunno, SOME kinda spice in the soup? This is Holland's worst band, the country that gave us Asphyx, Pestilence and Thanatos shouldn't even be 300000 miles from this. Album closer "Opposite Extremities" comes in finally and I couldn't be happier, this will end and something good will begin. The drum work is the best since track 5 here but it doesn't matter. The riffs are chunkier and more noticeable here but it doesn't matter. The vocalist is giving everything a break here but it doesn't matter. Because they again make a mess of everything. The guitars churning out the same riff from beginning to (almost) end…What a joke.

Fuck this, there is so much better stuff out there. The first Fleshgrind is worse, Devourment's worse, but just about everything else is better. If Disavowed were food they'd be a monstrously big hamburger, with no salt, no ketchup or cheese or bun or anything, just one gigantic PLAIN burger that you can never finish. It's half burnt, chewy and staggeringly dry. You look over and you see a friend with pizza, a friend with tacos, and even a friend who's eating a burger with cheese and tomatoes and it's juicy…but you're still there TRYING to finish off something so bland and dull it's an insult to you as a human to eat it.

Go buy something else from Holland instead. I hear that Soulburn band is pretty swell……..

March 7th, 2005