Brutal Death Metal is one tough fucker to get into. It's like if music was taken to every single limit possible for the result to still be musical. And that is not only what makes it interesting, but also makes it quite a hit-or-miss affair. There definitely is a formula to it, but it's so specific that one has to disfigure it completely so as to have music that is interesting. Which means that, while there might be some household names in the genre, such as Suffocation or Nile, the best that most bands might hope for is one fantastic album, where all the elements just come together, and a batch of unremarkable releases. And, right off the bat, everything about Proliferation of Disaster seemed to scream that Mindly Rotten had taken the wrongest turn among a large array of wrong turns somewhere along the way.
First of all, their debut, The Most Exquisite Agonies, was among the best albums of the genre because of the way it twisted it into a unique, conceptual listen, and making anything in a similar vein would be pointless. Second, this sophomore is from 2011, meaning that it took a suspicious 6 years to release, usually not a very good sign in Death Metal. Third, the band moved from their original headquarters in Colombia to Armenia, to sign to Russian label Coyote. Fourth, the new logo is more easily readable, and the album cover seems more fitting for a generic Deathcore album, unlike the badly drawn yet ominous one from their former record. Top that off with an intro consisting of unspectacular movie samples and you've got yourself a recipe for losing everyone's interest in the album. A shame really, since the "music" part of the album is pretty phenomenal.
This time around, Mindly Rotten have made the somewhat unorthodox move of leaving behind the "incomprehensibility" factor and worked on the "songwriting" and the "riffs" aspect, meanwhile leaving their personal touch to them. And the result is strange, to say the least. The songs here rely strongly on the use of huge contrasts, to create a form of Brutal Death Metal that is at the same time confusing and ultra-technical, but incredibly catchy as well. And what's more, they've managed to make some of the most violent music imaginable with the use of riffs cheerful enough to feature in DragonForce songs. And despite the chaotic nature of the songs, with some patience, one can easily capture the intricate dynamics present in each song. One obvious example of this is "Death's Fatal Flow", which also has the characteristic of coming to a climactic riff halfway through the song and becoming even more intense after that.
Proliferation Of Disaster starts out more restrained and logical, and becomes progressively more erratic and insane, intensifying itself until "Catastrophic Hecatomb (Collosal Destruction)". "Abysmal Delirium (Instrumental Reverie)" follows, with an evidently cheerful and congratulatory undertone, which is a perfectly satisfying ending to an album that leaves you feeling like you had just wrestled a missile-breathing gorillasaurus and won. The album ends with a new version of a song from their previous one, like as though the band wanted you to know how much they have evolved. And I have to say that it is quite a lot. This release may not be as textural or atmospheric or subtle as the debut, but it's definitely weirder, better written, and, well, better. They have improved on the unimprovable. You know those albums that every other album within a genre seems to be compared to? Well, this may one day become one of those.
Standout tracks:
Reign of Confussion (Unpredictable Perturbation)
Outside Forces (Shall Fragmented Beings)
Death's Fatal Flow
Engmatic Hallucinations (At the Edge of Chaos)
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