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Well these guys are going places. I'm serious. I see a bright future for this band in today's metal market: A Century Media or Nuclear Blast contract, big glossy magazine ads (complete with laudatory quotes and high scores from Heavy Oder Was, BWBK, etc.) and a tour with In Flames or Shadowsfall followed by, maybe, an Ozzfest appearance. That doesn't mean I think this is the greatest band ever, but they are a very, very good band in a style that is very in right now.

Disarmonia Mundi are a band in that vein of 'Melodic Death Metal' that so many metalheads hate. They are in the general ballpark of "Colony" era N'FLAMEZ, Gardenian, ShadowsFall or more recent Soilwork (no shock as frontman Speed Strid is a Soilwork alum). DM play fast, thrashy riffs with aggressive, Pantera-ish vocals that are too clean to be Death vocals, yet still harsh. The band's gimmick – if it can be called that – is that they have a cleanly sung chorus on almost every song. It is a bit gimmicky, but it renders the songs instantly catchy and distinct from one another, avoiding the samey-sounding cuts of a lot of these metalcoreish bands.

I would write that off and call these guys a Gothenburg Linkin Park if their music wasn't so fucking good – but it is. Disarmonia Mundi are tight, fast, aggressive, and they play riffs much more complex than wankers like ShadowsFall. Their arrangements are compelling and they have some great hooks on this disc. The album opener is a killer, and "Morgue Of Centuries" is similarly great. There is some pseudo-rapping on "Red Clouds", but otherwise the song slays. Some of the later cuts are not as good, and in general the second half of the CD loses focus and begins to wear a bit. But overall this band has taken the more 'commercial' Gothenburg sound and raised it to another level with superior playing and very catchy songwriting. This sort of metal is not really my thing, but I won't say it isn't good. Fans of the aforementioned bands should really dig this one, and I predict this album will make quite a splash.