Disrupted - Heavy Death EP

 Lots of fat, not enough muscle. 

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on January 23rd, 2021) 

Over the past few years ("past few years" meaning a decade and a half by now), we've seen a steady revival of old-school death metal, with bands taking from many scenes dating back to the subgenre's heyday. One of the most popular scenes for bands to draw from has been that of Stockholm, with bands like Gatecreeper and Black Breath championing the sound in the new millennium. Disrupted is one of the less popular bands in that field, and while their 2020 release Pure Death was quite good, their debut EP, Heavy Death is much simpler, and suffers as a result.
Things kick off with "Reverse the Cross", featuring punky drumming and buzzsaw riffing that reeks of Entombed's Left Hand Path. This song also highlights the production on this EP. The guitars have the overdriven sound we've all come to love by now, the bass is surprisingly high in the mix, roaring and almost taking the lead from the guitars at times. The drums also sound great, with the bass drum booming and driving the rhythms forward. It's a really good production job for a debut release, and one that fits the style like a glove.

The EP continues in a similar manner until we reach the fourth track "The Dead". It provides a welcome change of pace, focusing more on mid-tempo and slow riffs, which helps it stand out from the other tracks on offer. Notable moments are the section at 0:37, which feels like the band winding up and releasing tension, as well as the breakdown at 2:26.

The final track, "Urge!", is the highlight of the EP, and the most varied song of the bunch, making use of multiple riffs of varying speeds to end things on a high note. The song kicks off with the d-beat that’s been used throughout these songs, before barrelling into a crushing slow riff that commands a reaction from the listener. From that point forward the band keeps on expertly alternating tempos before ending things with a hefty mid paced riff and some guitar feedback.

Now while this release is technically proficient, the lack of variety between the tracks ends up being its Achilles' Heel. Almost every song barring "The Dead" and "Urge!" feels the same, with the drumming in particular being the reason they blend together so much. That, coupled with the fact that every song except for the final one has 2 riffs at most makes for a somewhat bland experience. Let's be honest, if you make death metal that relies on nothing but riffs and has no lead work of any kind, you need more than 2 riffs per song.

Heavy Death is the release of a band that, while having a good idea of what they wanted to play and had the skills to do so, were simply lacking when it came to the execution. I could only recommend this to people who are either interested in the band's back catalogue, or those who love the Stockholm sound with no exceptions. Apart from those things, it's a release you won't get much mileage out of. Thankfully things improved considerably with subsequent releases.

Highlights: Reverse the Cross, The Dead, Urge!

Rating: 64%

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