(written by Islander)
In 2022 the Danish brutal death metal band Defilementory announced a change of name to Dysgnostic and revealed a dramatic change of musical identity through the release of their first album as Dysgnostic — Scar Echoes. It was presented by Transcending Obscurity Records under the banner of magnificently chilling cover art by Dawid Figielek. As we described at the time, the performances on Scar Echoes “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’.
And now Dysgnostic return with their second album, End Whispers, also to be released by Transcending Obscurity (on July 10th). As you can see, this one also features stunning cover art, this time a frightening and unearthly creation by Belial NecroArts, and we are again privileged to premiere some of Dysgnostic’s new music, a song from the album called “The Last Refrain“.
Here is how T.O. introduces the album as a whole:
Dysgnostic continue to refine their hypnotic dissonant death metal sound by adding more nuance and structure to it. The music on this album is dense and complex while retaining the cover of darkness. The impassioned, seething riffs light up the proceedings like fireflies buzzing around in an underground cave. The hypnotic quality of the music induces a state of pleasurable numbness where you witness an otherwise harrowing maze of constantly shifting tunes and it all seems perfectly logical and in place.
With all this cacophony, which eventually feels like orchestrated symphony, varying dark shades of emotions start becoming apparent. It’s clear that End Whispers is only as impenetrable as it is multifaceted, an album that starts making sense after a few listens and one that will make you keep coming back to it to unravel more of its intricacies.
That final quoted line highlights an aspect of Dysgnostic’s music that affected us in the context of Scar Echoes — their songs are often quite hard to forget, often quite infectious, even though they make many kaleidoscopic turns and channel devastating moods of various unnerving shades (in fact, we put one of the Scar Echoes tracks on our list of 2022’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs). As you’re about to discover, they haven’t lost that touch.
In listening to “The Last Refrain” it’s easy to imagine the song’s title as a reference to the final stanza of some terrible catastrophe, one presaged in the music by the slow, haunting reverberation of mournful guitar notes, as if someone is looking back at a tragedy that has already befallen and can’t be undone.
And then the song seems to bear witness to what caused the grief, erupting in a surge of furiously blasting drums, viciously churning and madly writhing riffage, and shrill lead-guitar agonies. Imperious gutturals and flensing screams eject the words above continuing fretwork contortions and continual percussive shifts.
As the kaleidoscope spins the music slows and becomes abysmal in its mood; the band inflict sudden jolting blows; the layered guitars create corrupted harmonies of dissonance and dread, miserably squirming and convulsing in seizures of madness.
And somehow this high-speed and impressively agile pageant of lunacy and torment does get stuck in the head.
DYSGNOSTIC is:
Thomas Fischer (Elitist, Apparatus, ex-Defilementory) – Bass, vocals, composition
Simon Kannegard (Denial of God, ex-Defilementory) – Lead guitar
Richardt Olsen (Carbon Tomb, ex-Defilementory)- Drums
Mads Bertram H Gath (Crocell, Heaven’s Damnation) – Guitar
Transcending Obscurity will release End Whispers on vinyl LP and CD formats, as well as digitally, along with an array of apparel featuring that stunning cover art by Belial NecroArts. T.O. recommends the music for fans of Ulcerate, Evilyn, Gorguts, Crown of Madness, and Undersave.
Find pre-orders and more info via the links below. We’ve also included streams of two songs previously released from the album, “The Black Sun” and the title song “End Whispers“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://dysgnostic.bandcamp.com/album/end-whispers
http://us.tometal.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
DYSGNOSTIC:
https://facebook.com/Dysgnostic
https://instagram.com/dysgnostic