Disguise – Second Coming (2012)

With a very interesting combination of Melodic elements and furious Black Metal, today we have Italy’s Disguise and their latest release “Second Coming”. In this eight-tracks 42-minute effort features very powerful songs that are nicely contrasted by a few keyboards and even some Black’n’roll tracks that will surely please any fan of bands like Satyricon, Dark Funeral and Anorexia Nervosa.

With punishing riffs and a very brutal drum track, the album opens in full strength with “Fragile Certain Death”. The overall pace of this song is very typical of late Satyricon, but with an emphasis on being brutal. The atmospheric/melodic elements start being more noticeable on tracks like “I am Alone” and “The Origin of the Unknown”. In these two songs the band goes on full endurance mode with some furious speed-up sections that rival Dark Funeral’s stamina.

Trying to step things up a notch, the band delivers the Dimmu Borgir-esque “To Dominate”, packed with extreme ‘orchestrations’ out of a John Williams soundtrack. The band’s ability to dominate on songs like this makes them a force to be reckoned. The Black’n’roll guitar sections are pretty catchy and well built on top of such an ambitious track. Going completely out on left field, the band delivers a Kovenant-inspired opening electronic section to their closing track “Second Coming”. The futuristic sounds are weird, but in a way they actually make the song more interesting and refreshing.

Featuring excellent guitars and powerful drums, Disguise might not win any awards in terms of originality, but they do manage to craft very good songs that are both catchy and effective. Drawing comparisons from ‘high-profile’ bands only indicates that Disguise is actually a pretty good band. It is a shame that they don’t try to make their own unique sound, but at least they are still delivering powerful tracks that will be liked by any fan of the genre.

Release: January 16th, 2012

Country: Italy