Disharmonic

The metal scene is erupting with technical metal bands nowadays and that means that even Germany, land of the conservative metal, is contributing their fair share of bands. Such as Doomstone, of which the second full-length “Disharmonic” lies before me now. The band was founded in 1994 in Trier, Germany and I’m not familiar with their debut CD “Obsidian”, released in 2001.

Musically the band is to be placed in the technical death and thrash niche of the ever-expanding metal scene, combining crushing riffs with a high dose of melody. Two of the strongest points of “Disharmonic” are the cool solos and at times ultra heavy riffs woven into the ten tracks. Alas, their weakest point is the fact that many of the appealing parts are terminated by bizarre ‘progressive’ breaks. Mind you, I fully understand a bands’ urge to distinct themselves from all those other death and thrash bands around by bringing progressive elements into their music but those very same progressive elements are just empty style properties when you hear them too often, resulting in no extra added value whatsoever.

This doesn’t mean that Doomstone is on the wrong track or anything. Its’ four members are talented and Doomstone’s music is great enough (especially “Evolutions’ Wheel” en “Misanthrope”), whereas “Disharmonic” has a transparent production. Nice detail is that the CD is mastered at the famous Morrissound studio in Tampa, Florida, home of some of the greatest death metal productions ever.
All in all definitely not an example of some failed attempt to bring in progressive elements into metal music, but it could be done a little less drastically.