Disma – Towards The Megalith (2011) [Profound Lore] // Grade: A

Ok. I fucked up. No, really. I should have my Bloglin privileges revoked and be locked in a dungeon for at least a few days. When I compiled my Top 10 albums list, there was an outcry from the readers of both the Bloglin and my blog, crying for Disma. Everyone claimed that Towards The Megalith was one of the best releases of 2011. Death doom is my forte. I live for that shit, so how had this album sneaked under my radar? Only God knows but upon picking up the CD, I have no shame in admitting I was wrong.

Disma just doesn’t do death doom, they master it. Want reverby and raspy vocals, they take it down another three levels. D-beat and riffage? Yep. They got that too. Towards The Megalith is easily the best death doom album I’ve heard since Hooded Menace’s Never Cross the Dead and I fucking missed it! “Chaos Apparition” drops a stack of bricks on you with a mean as fuck intro, chugging riffs and stomping vocals, reminiscent of Winter’s work. “Chasm Of Oceanus” is an abyss of lumbering percussions and fatally-finite rhythms.

Much as a poltergeist would torment you in your home, “Spectral Domination” goes right for the amp and speakers. Try to not get down with this shit. Each of these fatal blasts are well over the five minute mark and it only continues through “Vault Of Membros” and “Purulent Quest”. And Disma has their own sound. You’ll hear the same notes, intricately laid throughout the tracks. “Lost In The Burial Fog” has the same 1-2-1 pattern and this time, an arsenal of blast beats to accompany the beast.

The last two tracks are by far the best of the album. “Of A Past Forlorn” is so goddamn good that I can’t even put it in words and it continues right into “Towards The Megalith”, a nod to the evil as sin cover art. My own fuck up has me feeling insignificant for not bringing this album a proper sacrifice at the end of 2011. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Get out there and pick up this album, ASAP.

- Prolly