CoC : Disharmonic Orchestra

Disharmonic Orchestra - _Ahead_
(Nuclear Blast, 2002)
by: Xander Hoose (6.5 out of 10)

I remember really being into _Not to Be Undimensional Conscious_, and later on _Pleasuredome_, when I was a kid. Metal combined with weirdness, that was exactly what I liked, and Disharmonic Orchestra were my heroes along with Pungent Stench. However, after they split up I never really gave them much thought and it's been years since I last played one of their albums. Their reincarnation was somewhat of a surprise to me, and I can't deny having been a little bit curious to know what they would come up with. So, now _Ahead_ is finally released upon us, and I'm sad to say it doesn't provoke any of the feelings I used to have when I was a kid. Sure, they still try to be experimental and in some ways they succeed, but usually they just sound like they got stuck in the mid-'90s. Their experimental side sounds outdated now, with many bands doing the trick better and more impressively (Dillinger Escape Plan, Red Harvest, Arcturus). A good example is the song "Dual Peepholes", which has a beat underneath that sounds so archaic any modern band would be ashamed to use such cheap sounding instruments. Sure enough I enjoy their jazzy approach at metal, and the songs on _Ahead_ can be very catchy with excellent riffing ("Supervision"), but Disharmonic Orchestra is really nothing more than 'just another metal band' nowadays. Their best songs are probably "nine9nine" and "idiosyncrated", the only ones on which they really seem to offer something different. Hey, if you liked their first three albums you'll like this one as well, but those who expect something surprising or out of the ordinary should look elsewhere.

(article published 21/3/2003)