DISGRACE — Grey Misery (review)

DISGRACE — Grey Misery album cover Album · 1992 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Grey Misery" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish, Turku area based death metal act Disgrace. The album was released through Modern Primitive in 1992. Disgrace formed in 1987 and released a couple of demos in their early days, which never saw any widespread official releases, but during 1990 they released the February 1990 "Beyond the Immortalized Existence" demo, the October 1990 "Inside the Labyrinth of Depression" demo, and the November 1990 "Debts of God" EP. Only three tracks from the early releases have been re-recorded and included on "Grey Misery" ("Unity's Interlude Dyes Blind Tomorrow", "The Chasm", and "Waves of Hypocrisy Seas") (four tracks on the original CD version as "Transcendental Dimension" has been included as a bonus track), the remaining tracks are new original material.

Stylistically the material on "Grey Misery" continues the Carcass influenced death metal style of the October 1990 "Inside the Labyrinth of Depression" demo and further develops on that style. So "Grey Misery" is predomiantly a fast-paced (sometimes almost deathgrindy) album, with sick juicy growling vocals and occasionally snarling aggressive ditto. Disgrace add heavy death/doom parts, morbid leads, and atmospheres to the blend though, which make them much more than just a Carcass clone. The Carcass influence is arguably there and it´s certainly strong, but Disgrace still manage to produce something which is very much their own. There´s for example a brutal groove to some parts, which are quite unique for the time.

While the rhythm guitars could maybe have prospered from a more meaty sound, the sound production is otherwise both powerful, raw, and brutal, and it suits the material well. Upon conclusion "Grey Misery" is a high quality release by Disgrace. It´s creative, brutal, dark and vile, which are some of the basics most people are seeking for in an old school death metal release. Unfortunately it would be the last "pure" death metal release from Disgrace, as at the time of the release of "Grey Misery", they had already moved on and started incorporating hard rock and 70s doom metal (Black Sabbath in particular was an influence) to their sound. They recorded an album in 1993, which remaining unreleased until 2011, which could have made them one of the seminal death´n´roll acts from that time, had it seen a release. Oh well...considering their relatively low number of death metal releases (two demos, one EP, and one album) Disgrace are still one of the most interesting Finnish death metal acts from that time and "Grey Misery" deserves a 4 star (80%) rating.
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