Search - Disembowelment :: Transcendence Into the Peripheral

Death-Doom Ambient Meditation

Mr. M. A. Gordon | Liverpool, UK | 04/29/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"`The Tree of Life and Death' burst forth from your speakers -its fast and brutal metal played with frantic desperation. But then, the frantic death metal slows down to a snail's pace, and gives way a to slow, brooding guitar passage. This initial juxtaposition of fast death and slow doom sets the mood for the rest of album, as Disembowelment meander through exotic places rarely visited by metal.
`Transcendence...' is a long ambient meditation that drifts and pulsates to its close. Unusually for the death/doom genre (often pretentious in its technicality), the production is raw; but far from being detrimental, this simply adds to the album's exotic feel.
On the negative side, the album's later tracks can become boring as the listener becomes aware of formula that should be absent in music as meandering as this. However, this is largely cured by the last track, "Cerulean Transience of all My Imagined Shores", being one of the best on the album and summarising the influential style of these Australian miserablists.
Each track is a journey begun and completed (or failed desperately) within it's own boundaries; sadly this has a negative effect on the album as a whole which tends to lack cohesion. Perhaps the interlude "Excoriate" would of had greater impact nearer to the centre or the close?
Regardless, this album is a monolithic masterpiece and a must have for any doom fan."

DO NOT GET THIS CD

IntoTheMaelstrom | Chicago, IL | 07/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"unless you feel like wasting money. The "Disembowelment" CD has "Transcendence", "Dusk", and "Mourning September" on it, and it's cheaper than this one.

That said, this is an awesome album."