AN NCS PREMIERE: DYSGNOSTIC — “BENEATH ABYSSAL PLAINS”

The Danish band formerly known as Defilementory have made a bug “reset” — and we do mean BIG. A long eight years after the release of their debut album The Dismal Ascension, they’ve recorded a new album with a changed sound, changed their own name to mark the occasion, and will have it released by one of the most exciting metal labels now in operation (Transcending Obscurity Records), adorned by magnificently chilling cover art by Dawid Figielek.

The band’s new name is Dysgnostic, and the title of their first album under that name is Scar Echoes. As for their revised sound, we now have two indications of it. The first, presented through an official video last month, is a track called “Silvery Tongues“, and the second is the song we’re premiering today — “Beneath Abyssal Plains“.

Whereas Metal-Archives branded Defilementory a “Brutal Death Metal” band, the evidence of Dysgnostic‘s new album we have so far points toward dark and dissonant death metal delivered with intense ferocity and technical flourishes.

Even without the imagery of the video (which will cause skin-crawling discomfort for arachnophobes), “Silvery Tongues” is capable of putting your teeth on edge. It’s a full-bore assault of obliterating drums, flying fretwork, and howling vocal insanity, but the high ring of the guitars at the outset is an unnerving expression of frenzy and fear.

The band break up the assault with start-stop rhythmic explosions, acrobatic drum fills, and a sonic kaleidoscope of riffs that channel serial-killer cruelty and mindless insectile swarms, but those eerie and unnerving wailing tones from the song’s opening re-surface repeatedly, and they tie the song together. More than that, those motifs get stuck in the head despite how desperate and agonized they sound.

The song we’re presenting today, “Beneath Abyssal Plains“, has its own attention-seizing intro section. This time the band don’t go hell-for-leather right from the start, but allow the screeching and moaning dissonance of the guitar to take the spotlight. The drums come in with a steady and measured beat, and the riffing creates a contrast with that, boiling like the sonic equivalent of a flesh-eating disease.

The intensity of the song builds and builds, the rhythm section becoming more frantic, the vocals roaring and screaming, and the bizarre guitar harmonies growing increasingly disturbing. The layering of the guitars becomes riveting (and emotionally catastrophic), backed by cavorting bass notes and thunderous drum-storms.

Without warning a different and moodier kind of guitar harmony surfaces as the drums nearly fall silent, and then the storm of madness builds again through ebbing and flowing waves of intensity, segmented by bone-smashing grooves and reaching zeniths of mind-broiling frenzy.

The song reinforces the impressions made by “Silvery Tongues” — Dysgnostic‘s performances are technically impressive, their dissonant compositions are intricate and twisted, and their music is capable of creating atmospheres of mental and emotional ruin that are both electrifying and profoundly disturbing, and only barely tethered to the “real world”.

These two songs alone make us really eager to learn what else the band have in store for us across the remaining tracks on Scar Echoes. Keep your eye on the links below for more info about the release date and how to pick up the album. If Transcending Obscurity holds true to form, it will be made available in an extensive array of formats, accompanied by an extensive array of apparel.

PRE-ORDERS (coming soon):
Bandcamp – http://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com
US Store – https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
Europe Store – http://transcendingobscurity.8merch.com

DYSGNOSTIC:
https://facebook.com/Dysgnostic