UMUR
"The Winter of Our Discontempt" is the first demo recording by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The demo was recorded in January 1992 and it was self-released by the band. Illdisposed formed in 1991 and released their debut full-length studio album "Four Depressive Seasons" in 1993. All tracks from "The Winter of Our Discontempt" except "A Darkening Age" were re-recorded and included on "Four Depressive Seasons". All five tracks from "The Winter of Our Discontempt" would be reissued on the 1995 compilation album "Helvede".
Illdisposed play a filthy, raw, and brutal type of death metal with both fast-paced parts, heavy mid-paced sections, and doomy parts. Their compositions are quite varied for the genre. Lead vocalist Bo Summer has an uintelligible growling vocal style, which provide the music with a high brutality factor. The music is occasionally spiced-up by some nicely morbid leads.
The sound production is decent considering that this is a demo, but the guitars are placed a bit low in the mix, while the bass is placed a bit too high. That seldom works on a death metal release, and it doesn´t work here. So for all the good qualites of the songwriting and the strong musicianship, "The Winter of Our Discontempt" is somewhat let down by a slightly powerless production job. It´s no major issue if you remember the context (this being a death metal demo recording from the early 90s) but it´s not a positive either.
When all is said an done it´s understandable why Illdisposed is considered one of the seminal Danish death metal acts when you listen to "The Winter of Our Discontempt". They have that something extra to stand out from the crowd, and if you´re familiar with the next couple of releases in their discography you´ll known that this was just the beginning. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.
