UMUR 1-800 Vindication is the 6th full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The album was released in October 2004 by Roadrunner Records. The album was re-issued with two bonus tracks in August 2009 by Massacre Records. There are 3 years between the release of Kokaiinum (2001) and 1-800 Vindication and a couple of major things happened in the years between the release of those two albums.

The first major change for the band was that they signed a record deal with Roadrunner Records. Quite a big change for the band, who now faced the broader distribution opportunities that a company like Roadrunner Records can provide. As a result 1-800 Vindication is to date the best-selling Illdisposed album, selling out the 30.000 copies that were initially pressed. Two new members were added to the lineup in Jonas "Kloge" Mikkelsen on bass and Thomas "Muskelbux" Jensen on drums and former bassist Jakob "Batten" Hansen switched to guitar. While the above are pretty major changes, the 3 year long recording break was alledgedly also due to the fact that lead vocalist Bo Summer needed time to cure his alcohol addiction.

The music on 1-800 Vindication has also changed quite a bit since Kokaiinum. While the band still incorporate their groovy death metal elements into most songs, the music on 1-800 Vindication is generally much more melodic than anything the band had done before. The music often crosses into melodeath territory and there are even keyboards/ sequencing and some clean vocals ( courtesy of producer Peter "Ziggy" Siegfredsen) adding an extra harmonic and melodic element. Bo Summer delivers both his usual deep growling but also a higher pitched raw vocal style. The songs are well written and well performed and the 35:57 minute long album is almost over before it started ( which should be interpreted as a positive thing in my world). The 2009 Massacre Records re-issue features two bonus tracks.

The production is much more professional and a quite a bit more polished than the sound on the predecessor. For better or worse IMO. The added keyboard layers do make the music sound less hard than I usually prefer. It´s a choice the band made on this release though and while I find it a bit generic, the keyboard element does suit the music pretty well.

1-800 Vindication is a good melodic death metal album that will probably appeal to fans of modern melodic death metal acts such as Soilwork, Dark Tranquillity and In Flames. Add a more brutal and groovy death metal element to that though. Illdisposed are not a clone of the above mentioned Swedish acts. A 3.5 star rating is warranted.