UMUR "Retro" is the 4th full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The album was released through Diehard Music in 2000. The cover artwork was created by Joe Petagno (who is known for his work on several Motörhead album covers as well as a wide varity of creative work for other artists).

"Retro" is a covers album, mainly with Illdisposed´s versions of classic tracks by death- and thrash metal artists like Carcass, Venom, and Obituary, but the album also features a couple of more surprising covers in "Killed by Death" by Motörhead, and "Beating Around the Bush" by AC/DC. The quality of the performances, the sound production, and the arrangements of the tracks are generally on a decent level, and Illdisposed manages to put their own mark on the material, although they are not themselves the most original sounding act, so that of course also has some impact on how the covers sound.

As mentioned all tracks on the 11 track, 51:53 minutes long album are of a good quality, but I´d mention "Cromlech" by Darkthrone, "Reek of Putrefaction" by Carcass, and "Out of the Body" by Pestilence as some of the highlights. Overall "Retro" is pretty good covers album by Illdisposed and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "There's Something Rotten... in the State of Denmark" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The album was released through Serious Entertainment in 1997. The album title is taken from Shakespeare's "Hamlet", where the Character "Marcellus" says: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". Since the release of "Submit (1995)" there has been one lineup change as lead guitarist Morten Gilsted has been replaced by Tore Mogensen.

Shakespeare influenced album title or not there´s not much sophisticated Shakespeare theater about Illdisposed or the music on this album. This is pretty much a continuation of the groove oriented death metal style of "Submit (1995)", just featuring a few more melodeath elements. New guitarist Tore Mogensen also makes sure to put his mark on the music with some very well played and melodic guitar solos. So there´s a good balance between brutal and groove oriented death metal riffing, melodic solos, and melodeath harmonies. There´s a nod or two towards death´n´roll too on the album, which provides the album with even more groove. Lead vocalist Bo Summer delivers a good performance too, with both deep growling vocals and higher pitched aggressive ditto. The album even features a clean vocal section. The atmosphere of the album is mostly dark and aggressive, although the melodic content provide it with a bit of light and positivity. Illdisposed never took themselves too seriously though, and of course they close the album with a "fun" track like "Horsens Highway". If I didn´t know better I would have guessed it was a Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention avant garde rock track from the late 60s.

The material on the 11 track, 39:01 minutes long album are pretty consistent in quality, with only a few lows but also featuring few above standard highs. Illdisposed´s greatest asset is their brutal grooves (and on this release the melodic guitar solos), and they are best when they focus on those and weakest when they focus on more generic sounding melodeath oriented sections. "There's Something Rotten... in the State of Denmark" is relatively well produced featuring a raw and powerful sound production which suits the music well, and upon conclusion it´s one of the better albums in the band´s discography and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Sense The Darkness" is the 11th full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The album was released through Massacre Records in September 2012. The regular version features 11 tracks, while the digipack version features 2 bonus tracks ("War" and "Desire").

The music on the album is in the trademark groove oriented death metal style that Illdisposed have more or less played since day one. They´ve added more contemporary sounding keyboards and melodeath traits along the way, but they´ve always sounded like themselves. On this album the keyboards aren´t present and in that respect it´s a more "regular" sounding death metal album, but still more contemporary sounding than old school. Bo Sommer´s distorted and effect laden deep growling, the groovy riffs and the predominantly mid-paced heavy rhythms are in place, and "Sense The Darkness" in many ways feels like another day at the office.

The songwriting is solid (yet not outstanding), the musicianship are strong, and the album features a powerful sound production that suits the music well (although to my ears the clicky bass drum sound doesn´t do the music any favours). Yet the album doesn´t stand out much in the band´s discography and the tracks have a tendency to sound a bit too much the same. It´s solid enough, but not more than that. It´s obvious that Illdisposed have the skills, and backed up by Massacre Records, the money for a strong sound production, so it´s in the songwriting department they could improve.

They sound too comfortable, too at ease with what they do, and I think "Sense The Darkness" suffers because of it. To my ears it lacks bite and passion. It´s still a reasonably strong death metal album though and while my words are probably a bit harsh, a 3 star (60%) rating is still deserved.

UMUR "Submit" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The album was released through Progress Records in 1995. "Submit" was preceeded by the 1994 "Return From Tomorrow" EP, which bridges the gap between "Submit" and the band´s debut full-length studio album "Four Depressive Seasons (1993)".

Stylistically the music on "Submit" continues and further builds on the groove oriented death metal style that Illdisposed also played on "Return From Tomorrow (1994)". They´ve incorporated even more brutal grooves in their music on this release though, and already this early on in their career it was a trademark of their sound. The vocals are predominantly über distorted and almost completely unintelligible growling, but there are sections with more intelligible aggressive growling vocals on the album too. The band´s trademark wacky humour is also heard a couple of times during the playing time, but it doesn´t distract one bit from the fact that "Submit" is one hell of a brutal and groovy death metal release with a suiting mean attitude.

The material on the 9 track, 38:04 minutes long album are relatively varied within the boundaries of the genre. The music predominantly features brutal mid-paced grooves, but there are faster paced parts and even a couple of more epic moments on the album too. Illdisposed can be really brutal, but there are also melodic sections with atmospheric keyboards and some very nice melodic guitar solos in the music. Even a section with clean vocals has sneaked in. The sound production is professional, pretty well sounding, raw, and brutal. It suits the music perfectly.

"Submit" is one of the standout albums in Illdisposed by now huge discography and it´s also one of their more varied releases that retain the brutality of their early recordings, but expand on that sound with melody and atmosphere. The unintelligible and processed nature of Bo Summer´s growling vocals will probably always be an obstacle to my ears, but objectively seen "Submit" is a great death metal release from a band with a signature sound, which is a rarity on the scene. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Return From Tomorrow" is an EP release by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The EP was released through Progress Red Labels in 1994 and bridges the gap between the band´s debut and 2nd full-length studio albums "Four Depressive Seasons (1993)" and "Submit (1995)". The first pressing was limited to 500 digipack copies and featured 4 tracks. The Nuclear Blast Records re-release features 3 additional tracks and is packed in a regular jewel case.

The music on the EP is old school death metal with a strong focus on brutal grooves. The vocals are mostly deep unintelligible growling, but there are a few other extreme vocal styles on the EP too (Especially "Darkness Weaves with Many Shades" features some pretty great growling vocals that sound a lot like Martin van Drunen).

The material are well composed, well played and relatively well produced so all in all "Return From Tomorrow" is a quality release by Illdisposed. It´s not a release that stands out that much in the vast sea of old school death metal releases from those years though and although their focus on groove makes them a bit special, this is still pretty standard death metal. As I said the quality is pretty high though and therefore a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.