Review | Disgrace - Grey Misery album artwork

Rating: 8.9

Country: Finland

Release Date: 2005

Track list:
1. My Dark Paradox
2. Unity’s Interlude Dyes Blind Tomorrow
3. Abstruse Myth
4. Obscurity In The Azure
5. The Chasm
6. And Below Lies Infinity
7. Waves Of Hypocrisy Seas
8. Debris
9. Immortality’s Open Lake
10. Transcendental Dimension
11. Debts Of Gods (7” EP)
12. Deprive My Innermost Soul (7” EP)
13. Incinerate (7” EP)
14. Offering (7” EP)
15. The Chasm (Demo)
16. Unity’s Interlude Dyes Blind Tomorrow (Demo)
17. Transcendental Dimension (Demo)
18. Waves Of Hypocrisy Seas (Demo)

Band Website: Disgrace

Disgrace - Grey Misery

Il Cattivo Doctore Perrier: Vocals
James Golf: Guitars, vocals
Artist Formerly Known: Guitars, vocals
King Nobody: Drums
U.K.K.: Bass

I've always worshipped these recordings, and it is my earnest opinion that Disgrace's legacy, eclipsed by the Anus.com-propagated plaudits of more fashionable choices (Demigod and Belial, for instance), should be looked upon more favorably by self-proclaimed death metal gourmands. It is true that Disgrace have done themselves few favors by embarking upon a drastic stylistic metamorphosis following Grey Misery (entranced by the same perfidious muse that led Entombed, Xysma and Desultory down a manure-paved path). Compounding things further is the glaring gulf of quality between the OUTSTANDING “Inside The Labyrinth Of Depression”- much like Funebre, Disgrace would eschew the dogged sordidness of their demo material for a disastrous LP mix just as confoundingly murky and mid-and-treble-soaked mix, blanching the guitars and vocals in a bottomless bog of cacophonous percussion. Thankfully, as with the Demigod reissue that Xtreem put out earlier this year, these glaring EQ problems appear to have been corrected somewhat with this package, the dense blanket of drums being lifted to afford more room for the rest of the mix.

Stylistically, then, this bears many of the defining traits of Finnish death metal, a proposition vastly different from its Swedish relation- oppressive, entrail-gnawing, post- Carcass riffing dredged in sewage and coated in impenetrable layers of pallid, monomaniacal sullenness. The characteristic darkness that permeates everything from Vomiturition to Abhorrence to Cartilage drips from every available pore here, though there is a sophistication and diversity here that hints at impending developments- the irrepressible groove that surfaces in the overarching rhythms, the swinging swagger that peeks through the buzzsaw Xysma/Mordicus abrasiveness serve as portents that, thankfully, are incorporated in far more thoughtful fashion than on their sophomore record.

The finest numbers on the LP, however, remain the quartet of classics from their absolutely SUBLIME demo, with the staggering album closer “Transcendental Dimension” being, beyond all disputation and speculation, THE foremost Disgrace composition, and certainly one of the top 5 Finnish Death Metal recordings of all time. This tune has it all, flaunting the band's precocious dynamism and intelligence in all its radiant glory- reckless, rambunctious blast sections collapse into torturous, grueling doom passages, the band shifting between two polar extremes with seamless ease to forge one of the most suffocatingly bleak exemplars of Scandinavian death metal. “Waves Of Hypocrisy Seas” is, stunningly, ALMOST as good, boasting more pronouncedly dolorous sludge passages intersecting mid-paced mire and frenzied flurry. The 7” tracks, which I had not heard prior to this prudent reissue, see the band fully indulging their yen for cerebral, cleverly structured and impossibly dark death metal, exuding all the maleficent morbidity and atmosphere of Depravity while retaining the post- Carcass savagery of Mordicus and Purtenance Avulsion. Indeed, considerable aesthetic parallels can be drawn between Disgrace and Purtenance Avulsion, and I would imagine that if you harbor a healthy yen for the damn near incomparable Member Of Immortal Damnation , as well as an affinity for the first Xysma LP, you will find very much to enjoy on this compendium.

The timeliness of this reissue cannot be understated, and is more sterling evidence of Xtreem's significance as peerless death metal curators. Disgrace occupy an important place in my own personal collection, and their demo remains one of the most revelatory discoveries I've made over the past few years. If all our mall-infesting, Skinless -worshipping whelps were weaned on Xtreem's line of reissues, death metal's prospects would be immeasurably brighter than they are now. Buy this.

July 29th, 2007