One of my favourite bands is California’s Disgorge, and while Vile Desolation wouldn’t be the first band to sound a lot like them, they’re certainly up there among the upper echelons of stylistic practitioners. There are licks throughout that call back to numerous moments in Disgorge’s sadly truncated career; malodorous melody lines unfolding like rotted petals on “Eyes of Madness” that could sit comfortably alongside similarly noisome moments on Disgorge’s “Cognitive Lust for Mutilation” from their “Cranial Impalement” masterpiece. Or how about “Veiled in Obscurity” – the combination of hunched, brutish grooves and sanguineous notes hung out to drool pus a masterful counterpart to the absolute beast Disgorge unleashed when they recorded “Descending Upon Convulsive Devourment” from “Parallels of Infinite Torture”. A simple way to put things would be to say that if you like Disgorge you’ll probably like this. That feels a little bit pithy though, as though I’m accusing the band of being a tribute act. So let’s instead say this: If ever Disgorge were to release new material, and if it sounded exactly like this, then it would have done great honour to their previous works. The sole improvement I’d make is the addition of guitar solos – brutal death with good leads is essentially perfect music to me, and if they threw a few of those in it would shoot this album into a surefire contender for my Album of the Year. Even so, despite their absence, I am having an uproarious time with Vile Desolation.
Those of you with the taste likely know this already, but the Indonesian scene is firing on all cylinders right now, and if you need an excuse to dive right in, then let this be it. Speaking just to those of us who like swirling cauldrons of blasts, gurgles, and frantic bursts of obscene distortion, this is a must-have. It’s arguably too similar to an army of other bands, but it’s done so well that I don’t find myself minding too much. Time will tell if it winds up being up there with some of my favourite examples of the genre from the last ten years – “Hibernaculum of Decay” by Defleshed and Gutted, “Agonal Hymns” by Nithing, “Finitude” by Unfathomable Ruination, etc. But I am listening to it about as compulsively as I did those albums. I advise you to do the same.
