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Disfigured > Blistering of the Mouth > Reviews
Disfigured - Blistering of the Mouth

Straight to the point - 89%

Bones98, January 7th, 2014

Disfigured have been around for quite some time, showing mass improvement in songwriting and musicianship with each recording session and Blistering of the Mouth has taken Disfigured's songwriting to a whole new level.

Disfigured isn't the type of band that would try to delve into the experimental side of death metal. Instead Disfigured created a formula that worked by taking elements from different eras of death metal and fusing them together. Thus, creating a new school meets old school style of brutal death metal . The band's sound and style borrows influences from bands such as Slayer, Suffocation, Broken Hope, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and Sinister while adding their own unique touch to the mix.

The drums are well-played, straight to the point, and sound great. The snare and kick cut through like a chainsaw as Rene can be heard pounding away giving the drums a more powerful sound or presence rather than the typical tap and go style many drummers in modern death metal have.

The guitars are thick and clear, lots of low and high end while sparing the mids. Every note can be heard clearly and complement the drums and bass quite well. There is a bit of a setback in the guitar department though, the solos seem out of place with the music. At times it would be better to not to have a solo because some of the most interesting rhythm sections are being pushed back as the lead cuts through the rest of the instruments. The bass guitars are somewhat drowned from the other instruments but occasionally come crawling out in parts where the bass goes off tangent from the guitars and drums with some really unique licks.

The vocals are well executed, sounding somewhat like the works of Sinister's vocalist during the early 90s. The vocals also complement the instruments, adding additional "punch" to the band's sound.

Overall, this is a solid release and it is highly recommended to any fan of old-fashioned and modern death metal. Its combination of the late 80's death metal sound with the speed and caliber of modern death metal and a dash of thrash is sure to grab hold of its listener's attention.

Definitely not a disfiguration of death metal! - 82%

Morhguel, October 8th, 2009

When I got the debut album of Disfigured I just looked at its cover, logo and the tracklist once and I already knew that this CD should contain some kind of pure death metal music. It was nothing special for the first sight though, the artwork reminds me the death metal records of the early and mid 90s so I didn’t rush myself to give it a listen. And that was a huge mistake! When the album started I was a bit confused, for a moment I felt that I’m listening to the wrong CD and probably I put a special release of a well-known band – for instance Suffocation or Immolation – into my audio system. The Texas-based trio’s work captured me instantly and while I was listening to the record I realized that the cover is not a stereotyped artwork of an average band but a salute to the great old ones and in this aspect I admit that it’s fine.

The band was established approximately 6 years ago by the three DeLeon brothers. Their goal is to play an oldschool death metal with modern standards. I didn’t write that they want to mix the oldschool style with modern elements purposely, as I feel sometimes their work reminds me the recent releases of the oldschool death metal giants rather than the modern death metal – but of course, it depends on how would we describe this genre. Some time ago, Jacob – who was the drummer of the DeLeon brothers - had to leave the band due to job problems, he was replaced by Rene Martinez from Scattered Remains, Blistering of the Mouth was recorded featuring him. It seems that this band’s line-up is really strong now, each member shows his talent, and additionally, they cooperate well rather than perform pointless virtuosity. Of course, these things are also true for many death metal bands in nowadays’ scene so we should ask: what is in Disfigured’s favor? The answer is simple: they can write (real) songs. Their themes are memorable but still really complex with some unusual elements, their music is really coherent and has a great feeling. These three musicians provide this so there’s no surprise in that Comatose Music productions - which label is in my opinion the distributor of the unique and good underground death metal music – have picked them up.

This newcomer band is really great and their album is one of the stronger releases of this year. Honestly, I wouldn’t say that each track is really outstanding but their weakest is still much more better than an average death metal song. This album is heavy but it’s surely not overcomplicated so the 28 minutes long playing time is a bit short for me. However, if I want to hear some really great and recent old school death metal music I would rather choose Disfigured than Benediction’s recent record for instance, I think it’s stronger than the British band’s release. Disfigured is a new name that we should memorize, and I think that they surely could be shown up as a support at a tour of one of the death metal giants soon.

( Originally written for http://kronosmortus.hu )