In 2001 the Dutch band Disavowed released its first full length record full with excellent brutal death metal. After the release the band has been on a long hiatus due to the wrist injury of drummer Robbert Vrijenhoek, only in May 2006 they recruited the permanent new French drummer Romain Goulon, known from Aggressor and Arsebreed. Singer Robbe K took the lead in the recording and production of the long awaited comeback record Stagnated Existence.

 

Robbe K is a busy man, because apart from handling the mic in Disavowed he also does that in Arsebreed and recently he joined Obsidian, both promising and high quality death metal bands. In producing Disavowed’s second record he did a reasonably good job. The sound of their brutal death metal, which is a mix of the speed of Suffocation and the technical abilities of Dying Fetus, is absolutely devastating; though it’s a pretty standard modern death metal drum production, with a razor sharp guitar production. This guitar sound in combination with all the technical guitar violence sometimes results in a sound overdose which misses the ability to stick in your head.

 

The lack of memorable riffs is also caused by the higher amount of really fast and technical riffs in comparison to their debut. On their debut, Perceptive Deception, a lot of catchier and slower, though still fucking heavy, riffs occurred like the phenomenal song ‘Reason Rejected’. That’s one of those songs which you really are waiting for at a concert. On Stagnated Existince ‘The Infinite Multiplicity’ pretty much manages to reach this level, but most of the songs just sound too standard, technical and brutal that it is hard to pick out the greatest, distinguishing songs.

 

Also the singing of Robbe K doesn’t make things more diverse. Live he is an absolute expert in managing the audience and getting a massive pit going, but on record I must say his monotone sound doesn’t rise above the average death metal singer.

 

Stagnated Existince is a good and decent brutal death metal record, but when this comeback record is compared to their debut I must say that they’ve taken the technical level of the music a step too far. This costs them the catchy sound of their debut and caused that you can play Stagnated Existence without really noticing it, it’s just a nice technical and brutal death metal record to play on the background.