Disfuneral — Blood Red Tentacle

Dropping their first full-length on Redefining Darkness, French death metal band Disfuneral are set to tear apart eardrums with Blood Red Tentacle. Although French, there is a distinctly Swedish sound to their brand, and this tone hearkens back to a much simpler time in death metal. Pushing forth their brutality with finesse and aplomb, Blood Red Tentacle is an excellent freshman album for this hungry four-piece.

From the jump, looking at the cover art for Blood Red Tentacle, one sees what looks like a nod to Dismember's Like An Everflowing Stream. This is a good indicator of what's in store. Heavy and chugging, Disfuneral. works to build a grim atmosphere with buzzsaw guitars, propulsive drumming, and gruff, guttural vocals. Outside of the Dismember similarities, one can hear bits of Entombed as well. This isn't just in the vocals, but also in the different song changes that sometimes border on death 'n roll. Disfuneral keeps the pacing varied and lets their metallic songwriting come to the forefront. It's not all shred and speed, but four guys working on creating some diversity to their sound. While paying tribute to their inspirational roots, Disfuneral doesn't dwell too long in this nostalgia and adds their own modern charm to their album. Interesting riffs and layered tones all add up to create an interesting and well thought out whole. Solos blaze skyward from the low, buzzing rhythm and shriek their way through, adding a wonderful level of complexity to the mix. In addition, all the songs are at the shorter/mid-length, and never revel in their own excess. 

Disfuneral's debut album brings Lovecraftian imagery and pounding death to eager fans waiting for something more than demos and an EP.  With an impressive first outing, fans of the band and label will be pleased with these 9 pummeling tracks. A great mix of old and new, Blood Red Tentacle is a very solid death metal album.