Buy this album. I could easily just end this review right here. Now I would assume most fans of the genre are familiar with these guys but for those who aren’t a little background info is in order. DISAVOWED are a Death Metal band hailing from the Netherlands who pay homage to the masters of brutal Death Metal themselves, SUFFOCATION. While the Netherlands has been a goldmine of quality Death and Black Metal bands for a while now there were two bands that stood out to me above all the rest: DISAVOWED and PYAEMIA. Both bands released albums for Unique Leader which went on to become classics. Both bands also shared the same drummer, Robbe Vrijenhoek (listed as Robbe V) who was extremely talented. While both the bands would have been successful no matter who the drummer was, I would argue that Robbe V’s drumming did put these albums in a different league. This is why I was concerned about the future of both bands when Robbe V sustained a wrist injury some time ago and was forced to relinquish his drumming duties in both his bands. Now most bands would be able to find a replacement and move on no problem but Robbe V was no ordinary drummer… and in fact PYAEMIA subsequently decided to disband (this fucking sucks!) while DISAVOWED decided to soldier on. When I heard that DISAVOWED would be releasing another album I was both excited and worried. Who would they find to replace Robbe V? Would he be able to fill his shoes? Well they lucked out and found arguably the best of the next generation of Metal drummers… Romain Goulan (aka Orifist) formerly of the French Death Metal band IMPERIAL SODOMY. This guy is one of about 5 drummers (D Roddy, T Laureno, D Haley, G Kolias) who can cleanly play double bass above 250 BPM. He is a fucking beast. By the way he also took up drumming duties for ARSEBREED another Dutch Death Metal band (more CANNIBAL CORPSE than SUFFOCATION) which has members of both PYAEMIA and DISAVOWED although he took over after their debut had been released. Which brings us to the music itself. The drums are lighting fast and very tastefully done, the guitars are brutal and catchy and holy shit you can actually hear the bass, which is top notch just like everything else on this album. People who heard the other album should note that vocalist Robbe K really stepped it up on this album. If there was one thing people complained about the first time around it was the vocals. They just didn’t sound natual. Well they sound much better and there’s some nice variation between some semi intelligible growls and some deep unintelligible ones. The songwriting is solid and the production is perfect for the music. There really isn’t much to say other than if you like brutal Death Metal like SUFFOCATION then just get the fucking album and if you have never heard these guys then check out this album and do yourself a favor and their debut too. By the way this was released on the mighty Neurotic Records which has recently become a dominant force in the brutal Death Metal scene. For info and to buy the album go here: www.neurotic-records.com