Slam Death Metal Has New Life

For me, in the form of Disfiguring the Goddess' new album "Sleeper" (Big Chocolate does everything ever now I hear. Good for him.)

I'm at least a month late on getting it/talking about it, I know, but it deserves all the praise imaginable. I've had an on-and-off relationship with DTG's music. Listening to it used to be like eating a band-aid; whether you do it quickly or slowly, it's unpleasant, but there's a sort of self-confidence you feel after successfully traversing the challenge. It's like an entry-level feat into maturity, like you haven't really become a god damn man until you try to listen to Disfiguring's slam death. Like an angry, gory bar mitzvah.

Yesterday, I decided (against some better judgement) to listen to their new EP which, by now, is at least a month old. Titled "Sleeper". At seven tracks, it feels like an EP; seven is right on the cusp of distinction between a demo and a full album for me. Anything below seven, often, I won't even bother downloading, because it's like half a meal. Especially when well-established, popular bands with a few albums release little samplers of their new music, I begin to develop a seething, deep hatred that often manifests itself in the form of pulling out my dick and slapping the vocalist of said band on stage. Hard.


But I digress.


Sleeper is, in short, fucking amazing.

Their last album, Circle of Nine, was well-crafted. A lot of what I used to have of them is pre-2011 garbage, and anything older than 2011 is almost exactly that. However, it had a few flaws which were difficult to get over. Most of them were specific to certain songs on the album (Void Leacher, for example, has the most annoying chanting right in the middle. You don't need that. If I wanted to listen to gospel opera, I'd go to church, and if I wanted to do that, I'd just blow my brains out right here and now), still it had a good overall feel, certainly better than any predecessor.

Sleeper manages to bridge any gaps between my musical taste and Disfiguring the Goddess' particular brand of ear candy. On this EP, the inclusion of synth sounds is more frequent, and far more articulate, improving the sound as a whole. I should clarify, I'm not a puss-fest who only enjoys music with a techno edge. On top of that, DTG  doesn't apply the use of synth in any sense that would classify it as "techno", or "normal". Imagine someone being bludgeoned with a Chromeo keyboard that was still plugged in. Sample that and throw it into some Sleeper songs and you've got gold. Pure gold. They've managed to be just as brutal (Disfiguring's probably the reason why people use that word to describe any metal ever), but with a sound that's cleaned up; compositional majesty. They even look at breakdowns from a new angle; the entire experience is fresh and I must say I'm pleased.

Go get it.