Look at the band's name and the title of this album. Is there a better time to ponder about it, I ask, as another lethal disease came to fuck with your world..? To make you discover that you are not fucking immortal, thanks to a microscopic motherfucker giving you the finger. Who's insignificant now?

Horrific Disease are (or were?), a death/thrash metal duo from Tokyo. Vocalist/bassist Haruhisa Takahata was playing in Defiled last decade, and guitarist Makoto Mizoguchi is known for his stints in brutal death metallers Pyrexia (USA) and Internal Suffering (Colombia). The band began their recorded history with 'Disease from Hell' EP in 2012. All of its seven songs appear here, on their debut full-length album that came out in 2015. I haven't heard the EP, so comparing the two won't happen here, sorry. However, the EP was released in limited run of 100 copies, so why practically waste as good songs as they are, huh?! Not knowing if the band are still operational, they certainly aren't chasing the songwriting world record title!

Absolutely fantastic cover art by Dedy of Badic Art sets the standards; its doomy dystopian imagery might not be far in the future, really, and the music inside cannot be cotton candy, can it? Brutal, ripping stuff is expected, especially as Makoto played in them bands. The intensity level is not similar here, but it's not lower either, it is just of another kind. At best, the band sound belligerent with their death metal assaults, alloying both European and US styles. Heavy-handed riffing, often palm-muted, is just devastating. Also, thick guitar tones boost the feel. Aggression is what this is about; there's just a pinch of melodiousness in. The vocals are one-dimensional barking; somewhat similar to Peter of Vader, but far more plain, and also in vein of Barney Greenway of Napalm Death. Surely, aggression level is at least moderate, but some variation wouldn't harm anything.

The rhythms fluctuate from barbaric to groovy, from blastbeating to piledriving double kick drumming, and to looser beats; it never goes to nu-territory, but groovier things remind of latter Konkhra. The going-on can get rather hectic, and then another Japanese band comes to mind: Terror Squad, and then it's old kind of madness that happens, not unlike early Voivod. Mind you, there's no distorted guitar work, but the action gets a tad chaotic.

The production is rounded and packed with punch. This wraps the album that is more than worthwhile. What this lacks in songwriting chops, it wins in pugnacity stakes; there is not a bad moment here, but no absolute classic either. Not over-the-top Japanese oddity, but a fucking driving death metal platter!

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
03/13/2020 18:12