UMUR
Shadowcast is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian/ multinational death metal act Insidious Disease. The album was released in July 2010 through Century Media Records. Insidious Disease is a kind of death metal "supergroup" consisting of members and ex-members from Dimmu Borgir, Old Man´s Child, Napalm Death, Morgoth, Nile, Angelcorpse...etc. The guys in the band got together to play some good old school death metal and listening to Shadowcast, they succeeded in doing just that.
We´re talking brutal death metal with catchy and memorable elements. Former Morgoth vocalist Marc Grewe was the last to join the lineup, because the rest of the band wanted a growling vocal type that differed from the more usual low growling and undecipherable death metal growling type, and they waited until the right guy showed up. Marc Grewe has always been one of my favorite death metal vocalists with his Chuck Schuldiner meets John Tardy vocal style and of course he delivers a great performance here too. The vocals are brutal and very aggressive at the same time but also decipherable which is a thing I really enjoy. Musically Insidious Disease draw upon influences from acts such as Obituary, Death ( early), Pestilence ( early) and Massacre. The songs are all well written but don´t differ enough from each other for my taste. It gets better after a few spins, but not enough IMO.
With prolific and skilled musicians like these it´s no wonder that the musicianship is top notch.
The production is raw and powerful. The sound is very professional and suits the music perfectly.
When all the positive things are said about Shadowcast, the album doesn´t present anything groundbreaking or new but if you´re a fan of old school death metal, this is certainly a worthy purchase. A 3.5 star rating is deserved.