UMUR
"Shapeshifterbirthblues" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian death metal act Disgusting. The album was released in 1995 by Head Not Found. The rather shortlived Disgusting was born out of the ashes of the legendary Norwegian death metal act Balvaz. Guitarist Lasse Johansen aka L.J. Balvaz (who would team up with Cadaver Inc. and Cadaver around the turn of the millenium), took some of his Balvaz material with him and developed the Disgusting sound from there.
"Shapeshifterbirthblues" features old school, filthy and morbid sounding death metal with a sludgy doomy edge. The vocals are mostly sneering, shouting and fiercely aggressive but there are occassional growls too. There´s a dark and vile atmosphere making the listening experience an unpleasant one. Of course in this respect the unpleasant description is meant to be seen in a positive light. The instrumentation is very basic and the playing, while not exactly sloppy, is lose and organic. While the music is predominantly in the old school Scandinavian death metal vein Disgusting succesfully incorporate acoustic/clean guitars into their music. This and the quite unique (for the style) vocal delivery make Disgusting stand out quite a bit. The acoustic parts are typically played with a distorted guitar underneath, so we´re not talking pretty prog folky parts in the vein of some of Opeth´s material. Just to make a comparison most people can relate to. As an example check out the bluesy acoustic guitar solo in the opening track "Fuch-sia". That´s not exactly business as usual for a death metal act. Another feature that works really well on "Shapeshifterbirthblues" are the melodic yet haunting lead themes.
The production is unpolished, organic and quite dark, which suits the music well. This is not exactly the kind of music that would sound great with a clean and polished sound production.
It´s interesting to note, that while the Swedish death metal scene of the early nineties mostly spawned acts with a similar simple and effective sound, the much smaller Norwegian scene mostly spawned death metal acts with a twist. Disgusting is in league with acts like Cadaver and Darkthrone that also played death metal with a twist on their early releases. "Shapeshifterbirthblues" is a pretty unique release to my ears though and with a convincing delivery and an adventurous approach to songwriting, Disgusting have created an album that features quite a few of the things I enjoy about the more filthy part of the death metal genre and a 4 star rating is fully deserved.
