Time Signature Wow...

Genre: djent

Whether or not djent is a genre is one of many points of contention in the metal community with haters typically denying it genre status and aficionados embracing it as a genre. Whatever people think, to me, djent is emerging as a genre with modes of expression and other elements appearing on various releases and embrased by various artists. One of these artists is Polish progressive metal band Disperse.

On their second album "Living Mirrors", they deliver well composed and varied music, characterized by a number of progressive features. The album is generally dynamically structured with crushingly heavy passages appearing side by side with mellow parts and sweeping atmospheric passages. Much like Animals As Leaders and Chimp Spanner, modern jazz rock is an integral element on "Living Mirrors", which is particularly reflected in the leads and the more atmospheric parts. True to the djent sound, many of the heavier parts evovle around syncopated guitar riffs that are rhythmically challenging. Unlike Chimp Spanner and Animals As Leaders, Disperse is not a purely instrumental band, which is why their compositions are a tad less complex. The quite soft vocal style is perhaps slightly underwhelmeing, but it still goes quite well together with the atmospheric nature of Disperse's music, and - well - it is much preferabl to the awful screaming vocal used by the likes of Periphery.

Being in the djent end of the progressive metal universe, this album is probably not for everyone. If you are a djent-hater, do yourself a favor and stay away from this album (and do me a favor and shut the fuck up with your purist complaints), if you are into djenty progressive metal or jazz rock/metal, then, by all means check the album out.

Warthur Disperse's debut album presents a mildly spacey brand of prog metal reminiscent of the work on Porcupine Tree's recent album, with influences from the heavier side of the neo-prog scene for flavour. It presents good performances and is well-produced, but at the same time it feels a little cheesy and artificial to me; Rafal Biernacki's vocals aren't really to my taste, and the band don't really offer very much in the way of really compelling musical motifs beyond those they borrow from their influences. It's a good, enjoyable debut album, but it could be a lot better, though on balance I think Disperse have as good a chance to grow musically as anyone.

bartosso Young virtuosos from Slav forests

Disperse, young yet professional band from Poland, country of beautiful forests and unfinished motorways. Despite that, their musical technique is very impressive. Is it neo-prog or prog metal? People are divided on the issue. My personal opinion is as follows: it's a neo prog metal music - full of keyboards, small bells and other... things, but with participation of distortion guitar and metal riffs as well.

Now, since I established the facts, I'll try to pick some interesting features out of this release. First of all it is quite well produced, some tones are not balanced but overall impression is good. There are also some very interesting ideas and haunting melodies (unfortunately many annoying and trite too... well, it's normal for neo prog). The band tries to experiment with rhythm and complex composition which is admirable. However, lack of musical intuition often condemns this experiments to be overdone. Despite their young age, the musicians manage to create very consistent album with well-defined concept, but as a whole, JOURNEY THROUGH THE HIDDEN GARDENS is rather exhausting experience. Excessive abundance of sounds, synths and... in fact everything, is overwhelming. I prefer listening to it in fragments.

Disperse is a band with a great potential and their debut is actually a very decent record. The singer is a talented guy with nice, strong voice and the guitarist is a guitar hero under the influence of such virtuosos as Steve Vai and John Petrucci. Therefore, if you are a fan of awe-inspiring guitar and rhythmical twists and turns and you enjoy rich neo-proggy musical landscapes, this album is for you.