Style: Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Dan
Country: Germany
Release date: 16 April, 2021
I’ve been voraciously consuming death metal in some form or other for more than half my life. I started listening to melodic death metal (Carcass, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, and Scar Symmetry), made my way into prog via Opeth and BTBAM, followed the rise of djent and djenty prog with bands like Periphery, Animals as Leaders, and TesseracT, left djent for techdeath for a few years, and have recently begun veering more into blackened and dissonant territories… all the while pursuing the most extreme and innovative music I could find.
All of this to say, I’ve heard a lot of music, and the music I prefer tends to be doing something unique or innovative that I haven’t heard before. It can be difficult for me to separate objective quality from innovation, so take the following review with a grain of salt, as Betrayal are not doing much of anything new on their latest album Disorder Remains.
Disorder Remains is unquestionably a death metal album. It has some faster parts and some slower parts, some melodic parts and some chaotic parts, but that’s part of the beauty of death metal: it’s a genre that can cover some pretty diverse ground. Unfortunately though, at this point several decades into the genre’s existence, that means that most of the ground to cover has already been covered, and most of the innovation today comes from combining influences from outside the sphere of death metal.
Betrayal makes it clear that their influences are death metal, and… death metal. It’s not bad, it’s just a bit bland compared to other, more creative music out there. The songs have decent variety, good dynamics, and some of the harmonized melodic sections and leads are really quite good, but many of the riffs are very run-of-the-mill. The vocals are competent but just kind of there and the drumming is probably the least creative part of the whole presentation. The mix is crunchy and punchy though, so no complaints there.
The album opens with a symphonic buildup that strongly evokes Bolt Thrower vibes, and certainly once the album gets going, there are similar lyrical themes and occasional moments that highlight the influence of these British war metal riffmasters. That’s about as far as the similarities go, though, for better or for worse: Disorder Remains tends to dabble more in the melodic and thrashy realms of death metal, with tonalities and riff stylings more akin to the bouncy thrash of Revocation or Anaal Nathrakh. The musicianship is excellent – the guitar playing is full of life and it really seems like these guys are having fun playing these songs.
But it’s that bouncy, fun thrash that kind of throws me off. The thing I find particularly odd about this record is the dichotomy between musical tonality and lyrical content. It’s almost like the band is playing fun bops complaining about war. I’ll admit, that’s a bit of an extreme take, but because a lot of the harmonic ideas are simplistic, they can be misinterpreted, with perception crossing the blurry line between major/minor keys and sending really mixed messages to the listener. I’m really not sure what the band is trying to say. Are they sad? Angry? Awestruck? Just having fun? Why are the songs about war? I’ll give credit where it’s due though – the vocalist is pretty easy to understand, despite the thick layer of distortion on his performance.
My final note here is on the drums. It seem like Betrayal’s drummer has three modes: constant one-two blastbeats, simpler slower stuff, and “follow the guitars” mode. The production on them is quite good, and the performance is super tight, but there’s no innovation at all in the songwriting. The rhythms are uninspired and boring, in my opinion. Almost entirely 4/4 with accents on 1 and 3. You know the drill. When the drummer changes things up, it’s usually when he’s following a guitar passage exactly, to the point of being completely derivative and uninteresting. Of course, there are a few standout moments here and there, but by and large, this is a very safe and uncreative drum performance. Honestly, it’s kind of a shame – I bet these songs would have been a bit better with more creative drumming, since they’re fairly well written with decent guitar and bass playing.
If you’re a fan of bangin’ thrashy death metal with plenty of melody, and don’t want to think too hard about it, Disorder Remains could still be up your alley. It’s competent and enjoyable, with solid production and songwriting. There’s just literally nothing progressive or innovative about it, and for me, that makes me not want to go back to it. Why would I listen to this, when I could listen to the albums that laid the groundwork for this sound, and actually had something to say, and something to prove? Albums that invented the sound, rather than copied it? Maybe I’m a picky snob, but hey, to each their own, I guess.
Recommended tracks: Lost Promises, Insanity
Recommended for fans of: Bolt Thrower, Revocation, Anaal Nathrakh
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Rising Nemesis Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Betrayal is:
– Alex B (guitars, vocals)
– Bastian Kraus (guitars)
– Phil G (bass)
– Manuel C (drums)
0 Comments