Album Review: Dysphotic -Chaos Terrain

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.  Dysphotic has no mercy for the weak. Even those  who crave dissonant and heavy brutality may find themselves overwhelmed with this behemoth. The music just keeps getting deeper and darker, like descending lower into a whole new level of the Inferno. The lethargic tempo and low pitch give the music a very immense sound. The dissonant intervals, from claustrophobic seconds and thirds to the spacious grandeur of sixths and sevenths, are reminiscent of the archetype of eternal torture.

The drumming style is very tense, invoking a sense of dread, like the drumroll during an execution or a military marching batallion. Those who know As In We, a phenomenal band which defies genre,  are already familiar with Ben Durfee’s exceptional technical precision as a percussionist. Droning, sluggish guitars are the hellish backdrop for demonically low pitched roars. The vocal style is especially brutal, but most metalheads familiar with the distorted growls of death metal or black metal can decipher them, even though it sounds like Satan himself is screaming at you. The album proceeds in this manner until the final track, Persephone. Are those clean vocals I hear? They are just barely audible under the relentless tumult of cacophony, like one’s last shred of sanity before the inevitable spiral into madness, a ghost of hope in a world of darkness.

Musically, this is one of the heaviest things I’ve ever heard. The oppressive soundscapes of crushing guitars and ruthless percussion are broken by the occasional pickslide or faint suggestion of melody, but otherwise, this will murderfuck your brain and eardrums into beautiful oblivion. A lesser band can only aspire to be this fucked up.  Chaos Terrain is such an immersive, devastating EP that it’s easy to become obsessed.  If you too want to experience a band so heavy that they’ll ruin your life, you can find Dysphotic on Bandcamp or Facebook. Everything from the lyrics to the artwork is mesmerising, vast, and daunting. This is my new favorite album. I don’t really have a choice.  Five stars out of five!