Dischordia – Triptych
Release Date: 29th April 2022
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Technical/Brutal/Dissonant Death Metal.
FFO: Gorguts, Ulcerate, Portal, Wormed, Deathspell Omega.
Review By: Rick Farley
Aggressive, intense, creative, heavy and abrasive are all adjectives that could easily describe any number of bands today. Not to mention bands of the past who’ve already released their respective masterpieces. Comparing new music to the bands past or its peers, or even to the genre’s past is not always easy.
An album review has the function of tying all of that together and either judging against it or making those words mean something more than just being descriptive terms. I’ve found reviewing albums can sometimes be a difficult task because we must make the reader believe that “said band” are all those things, more so than every other band out there. Well, Dischordia is the rare case that just simply listening to Minds of Dust, the embedded track in this review, will do a lot of the leg work for me. Not a lot of in between from this type of music. The angular metallic churning and grinding of the riffs are extremely heavy, aggressive and singularly abrasive. The creativity of using space, tempos, odd structures and tempestuous atmosphere creates an unnerving intensity. Ungodly demonic Growls and a heavy as fuck, brutal ending let you know exactly what you’re in for. If you dug that video, and I hope you did, please read on.
Unconventional but with ferocious execution, each song takes you on a surreal journey filled with an extreme mind warping and suffocating Death Metal soundscape. As an album, Triptych is a sonic experience filled with complex and aural nastiness. Jarring and unsettling this Oklahoma City band, Dischordia are set to obliterate your preconceived notions of what’s truly brutal, progressive, dissonant and technical in today’s Metal scene. Solely on the surface Dischordia are a Death Metal band, but under the belly of the beast is a living breathing pit of cacophonous hellfire. Bits and pieces of discordant passages strung together loosely, holding on barely by an inharmonious sense of melody. Triptych is violent and disorienting. There’s a push and pull within each song, seemingly fighting itself for the leftover scraps. Huge crushing and polyrhythmic metallic riffs grating under layered disharmonic fits of jazzy solo esque guitars and moving bass lines. The guitar riffs are slightly reminiscent of bands like Immolation and Meshuggah but just not as in obvious patterns, but the influence is there. Outbursts of furious mathematical drumming and insane percussive dynamics, starting and stopping from devastating blasting to intricate hi-hat work. Frequent bits of ambience within songs resonate softly using pianos, woodwinds and other unique sounds, creating an odd and calming break from the discomforting brutality. The growls are mid, but often go low and guttural for a hellish juxtaposition between softer and heavier parts. There’s even a choir on closing track La Petite Mort that’s uncomfortable and nightmarish. This is a difficult album to listen to, and I mean that with the upmost respect. Nerve shredding at every corner, even the slow eerie discordant flute solo (yes, I said flute) smack dab in the middle of Bodies of Ash is disturbing.
Triptych needs to be played from start to finish, benefitting greatly by the third round. To the uninitiated, the first play through could be extremely jarring and possibly off-putting, but stick to it and I promise this colossal behemoth will reveal its melodies and rhythmic structures to you, resulting in a phenomenal album by a band that’s far from the norm. It becomes strangely cohesive in its unpredictable setting, and everything will start to make perfect sense. The mixing and mastering is also top tier, the clarity between instruments ensures that the mix doesn’t sound too claustrophobic even with their tense throttling songwriting. Dischordia is exciting, angry, fresh and unique while not sacrificing musicianship or brain liquefying heaviness. If you’re already into this type of music, it doesn’t get much better than this. The standard has been reset. If you’re new to this music, bathe in all its brutal and resounding splendour.
(5 / 5)
