DISFIGURE ME DEAD, bitch!

DISFIGURED DEAD - Visions Of Death

Hells Headbangers

Written by: Alex Gilbert ©

Disfigure me dead, bitch!  That’s what DISFIGURED DEAD the band did to me!  Once again, another great release from underground metal specialists Hells Headbangers, this time with the DISFIGURED DEAD album Visions Of Death.  It’s straight forward, raw to the bone, nitty gritty, old skool death metal.  The production is possibly like you guessed: a tad fuzzy for those of you tr00 metalheads who don’t like that pretty watered down production.  Production wise or not (I hate how so many judge off of production), DISFIGURED DEAD creates some good metal.  Many conceive black metal to be the "evilest" form of music out there, which is completely stupid in some cases, but evil or not, some of that death metal out there influenced by classic horror is straight up evil, and kickass at the same time.  Get your leather jacket with your Death, Cannibal Corpse, and Convulse patches out for this one!  Here’s a patch-friendly release.

Visions Of Death gives a ton of great old fashion death metal.  This whole album is a pretty good listen from start to finish, but here’s some of my favs:

The third track on this album called “Screamatorium” is a beast.  Classic death metallers, rejoice.  The song is a simple yet a straight assault to the skull, bashing out the brains.  Early Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, and Unleashed come to my mind with the tempo shifts, and it’s good to see a modern day release like this re-living (I hate that saying) the old days. But it's true, because these guys + Hells Headbangers focus on that no bullshit metal.  I'm glad someone is sticking true to their guns, because isn't it all about the music?  It's always great to see those few labels that absolutely love what they put out, and not about selling zillions of records and appealing to the 14 year old hipster crowd just for status points.  This album continues to slay, my friends.

Mid-way through the album you’ll run into “Dead But Walking”, so by song title you’re going to think two things: 1) Some Zombie shit? 2) This is metal!  #1 is false, but #2 is true!  Just straight death metal with blasts of mid tempo assaults, squeals, and lyrical gore goodness. It's nice to take a fresh breath of air.

The album closer in “Eternally Entombed” is where I see the band at their best, and shred they do!  I know I mention Slayer quite a bit in reviews (and I don’t want to look any less eduacated by a Slayer example since Slayer is a huge band that I hope the average person knows of – I love Slayer, btw), but this style of underground death metal definitely takes that evil perspective from Slayer’s Show No Mercy and the classic / unbeatable Reign In Blood-era.  Taking influence from a great is not bad at all, because back to the point at hand, DISFIGURED DEAD is shredding through these verses sometimes at insane speeds, and sometimes with classic death riffs that are bound to strike the metallic mind.  “Eternally Entombed” is definitely the epic on Visions Of Death in my opinion, clocking in at 5:44, and kicking ass every second for whatever pace they choose. 

I wish people would take more notice of these great underground metal bands, but I guess in the end it’s hard to appeal to this generation’s abundance of hipsters and scene douches.  So furthering this point, DISFIGURED DEAD makes true death metal for the people that want to hear it, and for the people who want to hear it, they are going to be pleased. 

((( Headbang here: http://www.myspace.com/disfigureddeaddeathmetal )))

Check out DISFIGURED DEAD’s music video for “Possessed Dead”, off of their Hells Headbangers release, Visions Of Death.