Greek band Disharmony was originally formed in the capital city of Athens in 1997. They self-released two demos (Harmony Realms and When Purity Withers), but due to internal and personal issues, the band split up after the release of the second demo, in 2000.
Disharmony reformed in 2009, and a year later on, the members finished their debut full length, Shades Of Insanity. The album was highly appreciated in the band’s home country, and the Greek edition of Metal Hammer elected the record as ‘album of the month’.
Now it’s time to conquer the rest of Europe, and that’s why Austrian label Noiseheadrecords will re-release this material in a proper, more professional way.
Shades Of Insanity clocks almost fifty minutes and brings clean, catchy and modernised Heavy / Epic / Power / Thrash / Doom Metal à la later Paradise Lost, Candlemass, Solitude Aeternus (yet translated within a 21st-century version) or Nevermore. It’s slightly progressive, yet not too complicated or avant-garde-oriented, with a subtle hint to NWOBHM, Melo-Thrash and Traditional Doom. One of the best things on the album is the variety, especially when it comes to the tempo. There are some faster, Thrash-powered grooves, battling nicely with emotive, integer Doom-epics, and everything in between. The sound is enormously polished-up, up to a sickening cleanness, and therefore a remorseful pity. It smells like shoe-polish with fake aromatics, and I honestly revolt against puking… Sad!
Another thing I just need to mention is the cover of Dead Can Dance’s Oman. Since I am a devoted fan to Dead Can Dance, I cannot approve… etc… I do not mind ‘reconstructing’ magnificence (cf. my appreciation for tribute albums like The Carnival Within or, especially, The Lotus Eaters, which includes several acceptable Metal-interpretations of Dead Can Dance-material), but in this case it’s a ‘thanks-but-no-thanks’-thing…