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Disastrous Murmur > Folter > Reviews
Disastrous Murmur - Folter

Looking for Identity - 60%

foshuggah, March 18th, 2009

After the great "Rhapsodies in Red" LP, I lost track of Disastrous Murmur. Either I was attracted to other bands or genres or I didn't get any info on their status as a band. So I decided to check Disastrous Mumur's discography.

I always thought that DM and their fellow country mates Pungent Stench and Disharmonic Orchestra had a very recognizable sound to them. Maybe the studio, maybe their influences, and this album is no exception production-wise. It is better and clearer, but that's about it.

Now onto the music. Variety; I guess that is what DM was going for on this album: tempo changes, song structures and some thrash elements. But unfortunately, change didn't work at all with "Folter". There is a constant feeling that they were trying too hard to blend in influences from their country mates, either the punkish side of PS or the prog approach of DO. The acoustic parts blended in some songs are too sloppy and non-sense. There is still some of the sheer aggression that they used to have. The opener, "The Oral, Rectal and Vaginal Pear" is a good example of this. Blast beats, interesting song structure and headbanging riffs. Then track 2, "Breaking by the Means of Wheel" starts off with an awful ballad-like acoustic part that goes nowhere. Just plain death metal riffing.

From there on the album is inconsistent with both, blinding sparks of great riffs in one or two songs (The Judas Cradle and Unfleshed to the Bone), but also uninspired death metal, like the totally boring 8-minute epic "The Saw".

In the end, maybe this is the reason why I never heard about this album before. A couple songs don't make "Folter" a good release. I guess that Disastrous Murmur was looking for an identity, a new approach to their signature brand of death metal. You can't blame a band for evolving and being this their first try, they kind of failed.

Highlights: "The Oral, Rectal and Vaginal Pear", "The Judas Cradle" "Unfleshed to the Bone"