ILLDISPOSED — Grey Sky over Black Town (review)

ILLDISPOSED — Grey Sky over Black Town album cover Album · 2016 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Grey Sky over Black Town" is the 13th full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Illdisposed. The album was released through Massacre Records in May 2016. It´s the successor to "With the Lost Souls on Our Side" from 2014. There´s been one lineup change since the release of "With the Lost Souls on Our Side (2014)", as drummer Kim Langkjaer Jensen has been replaced by Rasmus Schmidt. Illdisposed have existed since the early 90s and have continuously released albums and toured since then and they are widely acknowledged as one of the premier league death metal acts out of Denmark.

Since their flirt with melodic death metal on "1-800 Vindication (2004)" and the next couple of albums, Illdisposed have gradually and slowly gone in a less melodic and more brutal death metal direction again. "Grey Sky over Black Town" continues that development of sound and by now we´re almost back to where the band initially started with "Four Depressive Seasons (1993)". At least in terms of level of old school brutality and focus on brutal grooves. This is of course not 1993 and Illdisposed have picked up a few tricks along the way, and therefore "Grey Sky over Black Town" does feature contemporary influences too. It´s still unmistakably the sound of Illdisposed though. Groove laden mid-paced sections and occasional faster paced parts, tempo changes, a solid rhythm section, and Bo Summers distorted and processed grows in front. He predominantly uses his deep slightly intelligible growls on this album, and only occasionally his higher pitched screams.

The material on the 10 track, 43:10 minutes long album is well written and fairly catchy, although not all tracks stand out equally much. But that´s nothing new when dealing with Illdisposed. Usually their albums feature a couple of standout tracks and the rest are more run of the mill, and "Grey Sky over Black Town" is no different in that regard. Run of the mill isn´t necessarily bad though and Illdisposed are more than capable of entertaining the listener while "Grey Sky over Black Town" plays. It´s just that it´s not more than a couple of tracks which stand out when the album is over. One of the highligts is "Your Darkest Son", which the band have also released a lyric video for.

"Grey Sky over Black Town" is well produced and skillfully executed and upon conclusion I think it´s one of the stronger albums in the band´s discography. It´s not outstanding or anything like that, but it´s a good solid piece of death metal featuring catchy grooves and a good flair for melody and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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