### Disfear: Live the storm

#### 05/08/09 || Habakuk

With Dis-bands you kinda know what to expect. I Discovered Dis particular band more or less by coincidence, because I was Discussing moshpits for a uni course and Disfear happened to play a show at the right time, so I Dissided to go down and watch them without knowing much about them in order to have an actual example to write about. Dis proved to be a very good idea, and consequently I walked home with two of their Discs and a “Live the storm” t-shirt.

Disfear play some sort of crust punk with a metal edge, tilting heavily towards Sweden, which makes sense, because they actually are from Sweden. A guy called Björn Petterson and Uffe Cederlund of Entombed fame are working the guitars in all their meaty glory and weave in some fine melodic (yes, melodic! But good, I tells you) lead-work that doesn’t sound like someone’s learning to play guitar melodies but is actually enhancing the sound significantly. Although this is a d-beat feast from start to finish, Disfear come across as a lot more well-structured than many other bands of their genre as the instrumental performances are absolutely tight throughout the 35 minutes of playing time. The production’s relatively heavy but nevertheless clear, and judging from the overall sound you can definitely tell that this is from Sweden and that the guys know what they are doing. Although I’m not the biggest fan of the trademark Ikea Metal sound, the ripping guitars and nasty bass suit their music exceptionally well. The tempo varies from slow d-beat to fast d-beat, with the occasional slow build-up part like in the exceptionally long 7-minute “Phantom” or “The furnace”, the second longest song of the album.

Ex-At The Gates front man Tomas Lindberg on vocals does a pretty awesome job with his desperate, catchy screaming. He carries onwards sing-along anthems like “Testament”, the rather melodic “Get it off” or the peak of this album, “Deadweight”, songs that culminate in call-and-response-like teamwork choruses involving some highly addictive gang shouts that sometimes even form another hook line. Underneath all the shiny vocal/guitar topping, bass and drums ensure that ‘Live the storm’ never really loses its momentum and actually lives up to its bold title. During a few guitar pauses they get the front spot and use it to help holding up the vibrant punk spirit. Well done, bass and drums people.

There really is not much more to say. If you like your metal fast, catchy and in-your-face, grab Stinky The Rat, stick a short, industrially sharpened wooden pencil from your favorite home ware store through your earlobe and give this a go. And if you’re not convinced yet, the cover is black and white and awesome.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Relapse
- Website: www.disfear.com
- Band
- Tomas Lindberg: vocals
- Uffe Cederlund: guitars
- Björn Petterson: guitars
- Henke Frykman: bass
- Marcus Andersson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Get it off
- 02. Fiery father
- 03. Deadweight
- 04. The cage
- 05. The furnace
- 06. Live the storm
- 07. Testament
- 08. In exodus
- 09. Maps of war
- 10. Phantom