ALBUM REVIEW: Spread The Disease – The Darkness. The Dread. The Suffering

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After nearly three decades, Spread The Disease returns with their brand of blackened metalcore in The Darkness. The Dread. The Suffering (Hypaethral Records). Over a half hour of harsh Noise, Black Metal riffs, Metalcore riffs, and a few spicy breakdowns cover a wide variety of tastes in a mixture of varying ratios from song to song.

“Light Opaque” blows the doors off immediately with harsh noise that bleeds into a set of primal screams, ripping black metal riffs, and blast beats to keep your heart rate up. Halfway through, the song does a 180 by throwing in some great two-step spots with 2000’s metalcore riffs that feel very nostalgic in all the right ways.

“Summer Wanes” starts as a very black metal-forward track but then has a sudden, heart-dropping series of breakdowns all the way down to madness. The band works their way back around to another black metal section with light synth work for a pretty epic riff to close out the track.

“The Blight In Their Eyes” is essentially the final track on The Darkness. The Dread. The Suffering. And it is quite a final swing as it opens up with a much more death metal feel before dropping into a hardcore d-beat slide. Not long after, the black metal seeps to the surface again with tremolo guitars and a sea of blast beats. The outro/breakdown perfectly puts an exclamation mark on the album as the song blends into the background harsh noise track.

Prior to The Darkness. The Dread. The Suffering, I was not familiar with Spread The Disease. They absolutely would have been on my iPod, so I am fortunate to have this second chance. One gripe I did want to point out was the “Outro” track. While the harsh noise at the end gives us a full circle for the album, it just seemed kind of extensive and I found myself just restarting the album instead. Otherwise, this is a hell of a way to come back from a long time away in any art form.

 

Buy the album here:
https://hypaethralrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-darkness-the-dread-the-suffering

7 / 10
TIM LEDIN
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