Disowning – Human Cattle

Band: Disowning
Title: Human Cattle
Label: XenoKorp
Release date: 12 July 2019
Country: International/Canada
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Promo

The current constant release schedule and an endless list of bands barely allow finding a good album right away. The death metal scene is saturated with all kind of bands and sub-genres. And I don’t include the immortal Gods of Death Metal – bands mostly every fan of the extreme music does know and plays forever. I’m referring to the newer bands and all the work to sow the grain from the straw.  So when I picked DISOWNING for review from our secret promo zone, I had no expectations. I was just attracted by the name of the band. Few minutes after: DISOWNING just blew my head. Great pick up from myself, I must admit. Looking at the cover art and making associations with the name of the album – “Human Cattle”, it just evokes images, proving to me the pathetic nature of our limited human existence and how devastating and humiliating our life can be. We are under the heavy crushing wheel…Obey!

And the music just proved these thoughts.

Hailing from Canada, the five gust now are releasing their debut full-length album “Human Cattle”, after having the EP “Battle of Neverness” released in 2018. “Human Cattle” is a fantastic death metal album. Really. Merciless, brutal and technical, but just right for me, without crossing the extra self-proving and showing-off boundary. The songs in “Human Cattle” own great sound quality besides being played awesomely. The album represents 40 minutes of crushing contemporary heaviness. Comparisons? Oh, how I hate them. Anyway the ten songs in the album represent a quite fair combination from Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Immolation, Loudblast, and Cannibal Corpse, just to name a few.  Played in an elegant Canadian way. That’s quite high praise already, huh?! It a direction, but OK, just listen then to “Another Piece in My Collection” as a starter, and we can talk again! That bass line, riffs and lead solos! Easily my favorite track from “Human Cattle”.

The quintet performs with punishing brutality and punctuality every track since the opener “Ghost Area”. The vocals are incredibly heavy and growling, no feeble screams, no bullshit. Pure brutality (yeah, I’m repeating myself). Hey, but with a vocalist named Jesus “The Butcher” you can’t go wrong, can you? “Intoxicated by This Illusion”, “The Servants of Chaos”, “Inner Emptiness”, “The Storm Before The Storm” are the ones to watch out more carefully when it comes to filling in your favorite death metal playlists. Of course, the end of “Suffocated by My Walls” definitely will grab your attention too. 

To keep the long story short. DISOWNING are offering highly intense, blasting, brutal and very enjoyable album of contemporary death metal. And I don’t mean contemporary like some peeps consider TBDM or Carnifex representatives of the genre. I’m referring to death fucking metal.  The album is very balanced between production, technicality, and performance. The more I was listening, the more I was falling into the deadly spiderweb of this album. 

Definitely “Human Cattle” is going to be in my top 15 list with the July releases. The album keeps you alive through the whole spin and it is among the finest death metal albums released in 2019 so far. It’s a record to peel your face off with. Go check DISOWNING if you are looking for new names and high-quality death F metal.  Bravo, guys! 8.5/10 Count Vlad

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8.5/10 To Greatness and Glory
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