Disentomb is an Australian brutal death metal band. Famous for their unique blend of classic early-2000s-style brutal death and dissonant death metal, they became an unlikely success story in the 2010s after managing to emerge from a traditionally underground genre, and have become a well-loved act that has so far managed to be the first band playing their style of death metal to achieve meaningful mainstream success in a very long time.
Formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 2009 by Jordan "Jawd" James (vocals), Jake Wilkes (guitars), Tom "Pox" Joice (bass), and Henri Sison (drums), the band wasted no time in recording a two-song promo that made the rounds locally on MySpace and at shows, and the band managed to ink some sort of deal with the Japanese underground label Amputated Vein Records in 2010 to put out Sunken Chambers of Nephilim, their debut full-length. They continued to play throughout Australia throughout 2011 while the album slowly circulated around blogs and message boards, and by 2012, they had recorded a second promo that hinted at a new direction, which managed to catch the attention of the American brutal death metal label New Standard Elite in 2013; additionally, Tom Joice left at some point during 2012 and was replaced by Jim Parker.
Over the course of 2014, the band began playing shows outside of Australia and New Zealand, and Misery, their sophomore full-length, was released that October to rave reviews and appeared on numerous year-end lists. The hype continued to build throughout 2015, which was aided by their first US tour, but bigger things occurred in 2016, when a spring US tour with The Black Dahlia Murder and Fallujah exposed them to a much wider audience. They would continue to tour on Misery for the next two years, while Parker left in 2017 after having been absent for some time and was replaced by Adrian Cappalletti.
After the conclusion of the Marathon Level that was the touring cycle for Misery, they finally returned to the studio to record its followup, and after over a month of teasing the album over the spring of 2019, they finally announced The Decaying Light, along with a deal with Unique Leader Records. The Decaying Light was released on July 12, 2019, and is currently being supported by their first North American headlining tour as of the writing of this article.
Discography:
- 2009 Promo
- Sunken Chambers of Nephilim (2010)
- Promo 2012
- Misery (2014)
- The Decaying Light (2019)
- Broken Under Your Symbol of Atonement (2021) (single)
- Cystic Secretion (2021) (single, rerecorded track from Sunken Chambers of Nephilim)
- Purity Severed by the Antediluvian (2021) (single, rerecorded track from Sunken Chambers of Nephilim)
The band contains examples of the following tropes:
- Ascended Extra: Adrian Cappalletti started out as a live fill-in before he joined full-time after Jim Parker formally left.
- Concept Album: All of their albums have formed a loosely-defined conceptual story about an apocalypse, with each album chronicling a different chapter; Sunken Chambers of Nephilim tells the story of the initial event, Misery chronicles the immediate and short-term aftermath, and The Decaying Light chronicles the continued fall of whatever remains of civilization After the End.
- Cosmic Horror Story: The apocalypse that their lyrics depict has overtones of this: one day, the forces of Heaven and Hell are going to carry out Armageddon on Earth, there isn't a goddamn thing we can do about it, none of our religious teachings are anywhere close to correct and they don't really care about us outside of our potential as Mooks to throw into the meat grinder so that they can spare a few of their own, and when that war is over, humanity is stuck with the bill and a ruined world.
- Country Matters: Like his fellow Australian CJ McMahon, Jordan is legendary for his extensive usage of "cunt" onstage.
- Darker and Edgier: Their material from Misery onward made them this for brutal death metal, of all genres, thanks to the prominent dissodeath elements that appeared in their music.
- Death Metal: They practice a version of brutal death metal that can be best described as a mix between the early 2000s Unique Leader Records style (particularly Disgorge) and dissonant death metal. This makes their success somewhat of an anomaly, as that particular style of brutal death seldom manages to achieve anything other than underground success.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Sunken Chambers of Nephilim was a fairly straightforward brutal death album with none of the dissonant elements that would later come to define their work.
- God and Satan Are Both Jerks: The warring forces of Heaven and Hell definitely have overtones of this in their works; neither side gives a damn about what we think and only see us as expendable foot soldiers, and none of our religious teachings about them are even close to correct.
- Lead Bassist: Adrian Cappalletti is a Type A and a Type D, as he is famous for his technical ability and his unique approach to pickstyle that involves heavy usage of popping and hybrid picking (rather than switching between fingerstyle and pickstyle; this allows him to not have to put away his pick while also giving him the dynamic and textural advantages of fingerplucking, plus the percussive attack of string pops). Furthermore, his basslines cut a central figure through The Decaying Light and often take a lead role, and are overall a major part of their current style.
- Metal Scream: Jordan James is a Type 2, sporting a distinctive gurgling bellow.
- New Sound Album:
- Misery introduced the dissonant elements that would later come to define their Signature Style.
- The Decaying Light greatly increased the presence of the dissonant elements, with a less riff-driven and more atmospheric take on their sound.
- Special Guest: They have had guest spots from Trevor Strnad and Matti Way on album, while Lachlan Eddy (Whoretopsy) and Adrian Cappalletti were live fill-ins after Jim Parker stopped being able to tour, and Tom Joice also returned as a fill-in for a brief period of time.
