Disincarnate

There must be some sort of old ass English curse or something that says If you title something Disincarnate its gonna be kick ass Death metal with lots of intricacy and downright classy songwriting, that is not only elaborate, but almost thematic in comparison to shit like Gruesome or some other garbage like that.

Really this is just a weird fuckin album, its really unlike any Death metal I can think of off hand, because of its very alien and slimy sound, and not in the Cynic or Spheres era Pestilence way either, it just sounds very sterile and almost scientific, almost sort of like watching a cyborg rape and pillage a quiet Wallachian village.

Songs are fairly technical, more so in terms of composition, as they all jump around very often, with lots of tempo changes in that classic OSDM sense, but they just have such an odd and almost scratchy sort of timbre to them, almost as if one of Lovecraft's creatures suddenly decided to apply his infinite cosmic knowledge to a science fair or something.

The riffs are not typical death metal, though they are undeniably death metal riffs, it's really a difficult thing to describe. They have this sort of weird, angular sound to them, but not like Ripping Corpse or anything like that, they sort of constantly sound like they're being thrown about in a tornado, akin to watching your laundry violently thrash about in a dryer. It's just this insane vortex that seems to usher all that is cosmically unsettling and hard to understand. It's very intelligent and more so than Opeth and the like (though I still love my boys in Opeth, don't think I'm hating here) Disincarnate by Loudblast is a effigy of the forgotten (wink wink), and the unknown. It deserves much more of a reputation than it currently has because it along with Consuming Impulse, Nespithe, Dreaming with the Dead, Dawn of Possession, Onward to Golgotha, Dreams of the Carrion Kind, and Altars of fuckin Madness really demonstrate just how goddamn alien this form of music can really be.

And besides it's more intelligent and interesting than any of your fucking bargain bin "deep and intellectual" metal, and has none of the fucking delusions and pretensions either.

This albums pretty good I'd say...

I don't know much of Loudblast catalogue, I only have two albums from their discography in my collection, but both of them are really great death metal albums, in my opinion. "Disincarnate" from 1991 definitely belongs to the best European death metal albums of that time, sadly at the same time it may be one of the most underrated records as well. In my opinion, this album has everything a death metal maniac should love and even more! So, I cannot understand why it so rarely appears in any rankings or when someone mentions best albums from that time. It deserves more.

Loudblast from 1991 played this absolutely infectious technical, kind of progressive death metal, with hints of thrash metal, which I could easily put in the same category as albums of Death, Atheist, Pestilence, Cancer, Morgoth or Mercyless. What I love about "Disincarnate" is that it's technical death metal, but it still sounds very aggressive, brutal and nasty. The material here is very diverse, from blasting parts to slower, crushing stuff. From pure, aggressive straight forward pieces to more harmonious riffs. There's everything here and the whole album is very dynamic, powerful and it never bores or sounds tiring. Songwriting is top notch, I really cannot say anything bad about these riffs or arrangements, because they are fantastic. A lot of that album is memorable and basically every song is a standout track. Slower stuff like "Outlet for Conscience" is heavy and very dark sounding, while faster pieces like "Steering for Paradise" are angry and vicious, but none of the songs are one dimensional, there's a lot going on in each of them, so I am sure you will be very interested to hear them. I also need to mention the production from the mighty Morrisound Studios, which is simply fantastic and so well fitting to this sort of death metal. And Stéphane Buriez, who is just as excellent composer and vocalist as Schuldiner or Mameli. I have nothing more to add, this is a classic death metal record and not only one of the best French death metal albums ever, but also one of the highlights of 1991 European death metal scene in general.

Standout tracks: “The Horror Within”, "Arrive Into Death Soon", "Steering for Paradise", “Wrapped in Roses”
Verdict: 85/100

My introduction to Loudblast was through their historical split CD with Agressor ‘Licensed to Thrash’ and being particularly impressed with both of these legendary Slayer influenced French death metal bands, I picked up ‘Sensorial Treatment’. From there I was hooked more than most as each album beyond the first was an interesting progression in style, I could see it was the same band but they’d make interesting and inspired stylistic changes with each recording. This constant progression could have been an effort to stay current, to keep up with extreme metal as whole, or to make music that’d allow them to tour with the bands they loved. It doesn’t entirely matter, Loudblast have always gone to new places with their music and it has almost always worked.

Two Loudblast albums particularly struck a chord with me immediately, first the subtle melodic death metal genius of ‘Sublime Dementia’ (and the ‘Cross the Threshold’ EP, of course). ‘Sublime Dementia’ is perhaps the best melodic death metal album ever recorded and they’d developed some of the unique rhythm guitar style on their 1991 pure death metal record ‘Disincarnate’. So, why doesn’t every old school death metal fan go completely nuts every time I mention Loudblast? It’s simple: Scott Burns. If you have never been able to warm up to ‘Breeding the Spawn’ or ‘Harmony Corruption’ then you have let his fuzzy, cavernous and cheap treatment blur some incredible music from your mind. I never gave a shit about the original mix of ‘Disincarnate’ because I was already a metal demo fanatic and one of my favorite recordings is the original mix of Sepultura‘s ‘Beneath the Remains’, another early Burns cult-ed mix. Secondly, the obscured mix actually worked to emphasize Loudblast‘s Florida death metal inspired sound on ‘Disincarnate’. Loudblast were able to better realize the ambitions of Death‘s ‘Human’ and their own Slayer influence into an entirely unique melodic death metal approach.

Uppity about it’s sound? Fuck off already because ‘Disincarnate’ was restored to crystal clarity back in 2015 and has been made widely available by Listenable Records since. Despite the ‘no frills’ approach to production, Burns and Co. got a massive performance out of Loudblast during one of their most inspired peaks. The mid-to-fast paced melodic style this record is unique because these guys had been a speed metal band less than a decade before this. Of course Stéphane Buriez is the mastermind but the performances of longtime second guitarist Nicolas Leclercq leave as much of a notable impression. Fresh off of his incredible ‘Reign in Blood’ inspired performance on Agressor‘s ‘Neverending Destiny’ Thierry Pinck‘s drumming on ‘Disincarnate’ epitomizes the versatility of proper old school death metal drumming. None of this should be missed if you are a fan of France’s incredible death metal history, the evolution of death/thrash and Florida death metal, melodic death metal variants, as well as old school death metal in general.

Though the guitar hysterics and brutality of old school death metal is always worthwhile spectacle, the bands that stuck in my head for decades above others are the ones with underlying memorable songwriting. Loudblast, being old school heavy metal maniacs, could always write a catchy metal song. ‘Disincarnate’ is a battery of them, actually and shows a lot of it’s cards with the opener “Steering For Paradise” you can hear a few riffs that would heavily influence Mercyless on their first album as well. “Disquieting Beliefs” offers a thunderous take on Pestilence‘s thrashier moments that stands out as one of the more spirited takes on the album. “The Horror Within” not only features riffing worthy of a death/thrashed ‘From Beyond’ (alternately ‘Leprosy’) but features Massacre‘s Kam Lee on the chorus. It is a banger from start to finish and has been up there in my top ten death metal albums for at least a decade.

Loudblast certainly haven’t gone unnoticed over the years. They’re particularly famous in France but only get decent mention in most death metal circles for their third album ‘Sublime Dementia’. If you’re yearning to see what else they can do with melody, and an even more unique lyrical focus, then I’d suggest that album and ‘Cross The Threshold’ EP too. For my taste ‘Disincarnate’ is the real kicker in their early discography and an incredibly overlooked minor classic in death metal’s history.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2018/03/06/retro-tuesdays-loudblast-disincarnate-1991-review/

I don't listen to this too often, but when I do, I enjoy it quite a bit. Loudblast changed their sound once again, and this time they're playing Floridian death metal with a bit more melody. I'm pretty surprised that this isn't that well known, because it fits somewhere between the Florida and Sweden scenes of the time. And of course, because the music is pretty good, just not extremely memorable.
The closest thing thing to this album would be Death's Leprosy and Massacre's From Beyond. You've got heavy, downtuned guitars playing mostly midpaced and deep vocals. Kam Lee actually does a cameo on here, with the song "Dusk to Dawn," adding in a little brutality. "Steering for Paradise" is an excellent opener for the album, and gets you ready for the rest. "After Thy Thought" and "Disquieting Beliefs" have a few technical riffs that spice things up a bit, and "Wrapped In Roses" is almost (gasp) emotional. The closer "Shaped Images of Disincarnate Spirits" is a real headbaning song, with more doomy riffs. That opening riff sounds like it could have been written by Black Sabbath.
As far as drawbacks, I'd have to blame two things; the low-end emphasis and the drumming. The drummer that they have on here is the same (I think) as on Sensorial Treatment, but he's improved and sounds pretty solid. Still, that's not saying much. When Hervé joined the band after this album he added in a really smooth playing style that probably allowed Loudblast to grow. This was recorded at Morrisound, so of course it has a real typical death metal sound, maybe a little muddier, but still decent. When Loudblast uses something technical, you can usually pick it out, but when they just cruise along, you sometimes don't know what song you're listening to.
This is really the beginning of Loudblast coming into their own. They luckily ditched the drummer and produced their masterpiece Sublime Dementia right after this album.
Disincarnate is a really rare album, so find it if you can, especially if you like prime death metal.