Style: Progressive Metal, Melodic Death Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Insomnium
Review by: Christopher
Country: Germany
Release date: 4 November, 2022
Dreams are a pivotal human concept; often they seem to describe something deeply personal to us, and sometimes they’re just downright weird, the idiosyncrasies of our subconscious borne out as abstractions that are borderline incomprehensible to others and often to ourselves, too. And yet dreams are a central facet of culture going back centuries, whether used in psychoanalysis or as a narrative device in film and literature. Naturally, musicians draw on dreams too, but to draw on such an explicitly visual phenomenon sonically presents a unique challenge.
This brings us to the legendary German outfit Disillusion. When they first dropped their fourth album, Ayam, they sat above our metric for underground inclusion (we specialise in bands with under 20k Spotify monthly listeners). But Spotify listeners are fickle and Disillusion have, criminally, dropped back into our underground realms. So I quickly bagsied them for this missed albums feature, much to Zach’s chagrin (Zach, our handsomest reviewer, wrote a great retrospective on their first album Back to Times of Splendor and yes ladies, he’s single).
Ayam is dense, ethereal, hard to grasp. I’ve listened about twenty times, and new depths emerge each time. Much like its central “dreams are oceans” metaphor, Ayam is vast and flowing; benthic dream-presences lurk within its depths waiting to subsume you, insights and emotions dart beneath the surface slippery as fish. The musical journey is reminiscent of that on The Ocean’s Pelagial, which employed a descent through the ocean’s pelagic zones as an analogy for the human condition; Disillusion’s take meanwhile is less obviously structured—we are always adrift in Ayam; be it dream or ocean, we are ever lost.
Ayam presents a welcome symphonic presence, whether it’s the rapturous brass on “Am Abgrund”, the mournful strings on “Driftwood”, or the lone trumpet singing out its lament on “Abide the Storm”—these additions add to that oceanic scope. Indeed, the entire composition has a very symphonic sensibility; it’s hard to think of the music in terms of its constituent instruments so much as one grand orchestration. Nevertheless, many musical moments stand out such as the chaotic shred solo on “Tormento”, the jagged main riff of “Abide the Storm”, and the accented acoustic percussion that opens “Driftwood”. Everything on this record sounds superb, thanks to the infallible ear of the masterful Jens Bogren. Disillusion’s supreme command over their music has been apparent ever since Back to Times of Splendor, but their reliance on self-production has held them back; Bogren lets Ayam shine with piercing lustre.
Andy Schmidt’s vocal performance is frankly incredible. His cleans have a resonant depth and power and yet a softness, as on the opening of “Am Abgrund”, that acts as a contemplative weapon. But his harshes truly impress. His barked, rhythmic spoken word is clear and punctuative, his lyrics evocatively poetic yet delivered with controlled savagery.
I puzzled over the meaning of Ayam for some time. This isn’t a narrative-led concept album, rather a thematic exploration of an analogy; an evocation of the terrifying underbelly of the subconscious. Our minds remain as unexplored as the planet’s oceans. There are only dream glimpses to be had and questions to be asked, but within that oceanic soulplace there resides both sublimity and terror. “You shall never reach the open sea” opines Schmidt on “Nine Days” and that’s about as close to a conclusion as Ayam gets on the matter. This foretold dreamplace, the self-actualised enigma, is something we will chase forever but never find. We live in its wake, aware of its absence but unable to articulate what it really is. None of us is a totality; the dark matter of the conscious keeps us alien to ourselves. Or maybe I’m reaching; Ayam is an ambiguous, thought-provoking record, very much open to interpretation—I’m sure a dozen listeners would find a dozen different ways to analyse it. Perhaps that’s the highest praise I can offer: that Disillusion have crafted something as confoundingly fascinating, personal and worthy of analysis as our own dreams.
Disillusion’s masterpiece was a long time coming; they’ve always been great, but hiring Jens Bogren to handle the mix bestows the fathoms of sound and lyrical murkiness that await the prospective listener with palpable depth. To conquer both dreams and oceans in one record is an immense feat, one that Disillusion prove eminently capable of achieving, making Ayam perhaps their best record yet, a grandly ethereal contemplation in sonic form, bobbing on the waves—adrift, alone, and beautiful.
Recommended tracks: Am Abgrund, Longhope, Abide the Storm
You may also like: Wilderun, The Reticent, Descend
Final verdict: 9/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Prophecy Productions – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Disillusion is:
– Andy Schmidt (vocals, guitar)
– Ben Haugg (guitars)
– Robby Kranz (bass, backing vocals)
– Martin Schultz (drums)
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