Cerulean Transience Of All My Imagined Shores

Sometime in the late '80s and early '90s there came about a band. Not just any sort of though. A band that was decrepit, evil, bludgeoning, and transcending. A band that exuded despair and chaos and precision all in one. They were brutal, desolate, and unrelenting all the same. This band put out some of the ugliest and down-right doomiest death metal heard this side of the galaxy. Ever.

Kind of like this guy:

(Wait, that's not quite what I had in mind)

Or this guy:

(Eh... that's not quite what I was looking for either but you get the idea, no?)

Anyways, imagine if you crossed early Mayhem and Winter together, while throwing in a little Incantation and perhaps even Asunder for good measure. You'd get something kind of like this:

(wtf?! Scheiße, that wasn't the picture I wanted. I blame Google! Sorry...)

The band in question was signed to Relapse Records so that should give you an idea as to how awesome they were. Aside from the obvious doom influence, this particular band had an interesting approach to their song writing often using tense tremolo-picking that is usually followed with really sludgy, slow riffing. This is usually followed by an abrupt frenzy of blast beats and another change in picking. Despite the drums sounding a little too synthetic and triggered, the percussion is phenomenal and surprisingly full sounding. There are periods of grinding blast beats to simple death marches. This change in tempo keeps the listener on edge.
The vocals are hauntingly dissonant yet surprisingly well-balanced, albeit hard to decipher (even for those with the most hardened ears). There's only one song on the album that I seem to have trouble with. This particular track features female spoken word-like vocals interlaced with acoustic-electric guitar. Its an odd number and to be upfront, I don't know what to make of it really. I mean I have nothing against female vocals but it doesn't really work in this context. Maybe I'll have to listen to it a few more times before I "get it."
But despite that track sticking out from the rest of the album, it highlights the willingness of the band to experiment and incorporate something completely off-the-wall. Each track is like its own person and adds a dimension to the album as a whole that was completely unique to the genre at the time. This album may be as close to perfection as one will get with regards to the death/doom genre.


So what is this band I'm talking about??
Ha! I was waiting for you to ask...


Well, I DID give you a hint in the 'title' of the post but OK, I'll give you another hint:
Cobras featured them in this post a couple weeks back...



Still don't know? Give up?


Fine...

Hailing from Australia, diSEMBOWELMENT were pioneers in a sea of countless bands that were pushing the boundaries (heck, they may as well had their own island). Along with bands like Abramelin, Acheron, Paramaecium, even Destroyer666 and Hobbs' Angel Of Death, it kind of makes you wonder what the hell those Aussies were (and still are) drinking over there. Hopefully its not Foster's Lager 'cause that would just suck. Whatever it is, there's been some killer music coming from the land down under!

Unfortunately, Transcendence into the Peripheral would be Disembowelment's swansong. At a time when death metal was at its peak and doom metal was well, still "doomy" for a lack of a better term, Transcendence into the Peripheral is regarded as one of the finest death/doom albums that has ever came out. Its unfortunate that Disembowelment split shortly afterwards but perhaps its a good thing as it would have been difficult to top this album.

This album I realize is not everyone's cup of tea but regardless if you're a fan of this stuff or not, you must give it a listen! Unless of course you already have, in which case you should listen to it again! Just sayin'...

Transcend here.

Metallum/Last.FM