Distiphyxia are a project by Absent Heat’s O.L. (vocals, guitars, synths, programming) and his session partner in crime in that outfit, P. (drums, design / layout). They joined forces under this moniker in early 2014, and very soon after they came up with a first two-track EP, from which both compositions are on this debut album as well. This full length studio debut, Overshadowed, was initially self-released in May 2014 (digitally only), but it got re-released almost half a year ago by Russia’s top-label Frozen Light. Both members, by the way, did take care of recording, production, mix and mastering themselves, and the result, lasting for fifty two minutes, gets re-released in an edition of 300 copies.
Overshadowed opens with the cheap instrumental introduction Prologue, which sounds somewhat Post-oriented, slightly alternative, and it surely sets a trend for the rest of this album. As from the track Emptiness, the band performs a disturbing, distorted form of highly melodic and sludgy (Black) Metal, rooted within a mostly melancholic and depressing form of Doom. It’s very slow in execution, with moments of creativity (or at least that seemed to be the intention – but it is not), yet unfortunately with frequently present moments of total dullness and boredom. Actually, the intentions are not really well-thought, the song writing lacks of inspiration and invention, and the performance isn’t but average, or less. Overshadowed rather sounds like a rehearsing jam session of some twelve-year old kids that did find some instruments in their basement. The album isn’t disgustingly bad, but I do not feel any attraction, and I am monumentally disappointed. The riffing is beneath any professional level, the drum patterns are infantile, and so on; only some vocal lines are acceptable, I think, for being drenched in sulphur and acid, but more than once these ones too are beneath acceptance. And what’s more – no, I give up, I won’t spent my energy anymore…
But it gets even worse. Because of the inferior mix, many parts sound false, unclean, under-produced, and for sure that’s a pity. It’s like the master tapes have been pissed all over by a drunk boar. Nothing but noisy murmur at the background, bass lines disappearing, vocals that sound like a noise in a far and distant empty container… Truly a pity, almost an insult! Hail Chaos, all right, but don’t f*ck with it, okay?! A shame…
A couple of highlights, in order to end with a positive note: the ideas behind The Obvious, the sole track that fully deserves my attention (quite interesting haunting keyboard lines), or both tracks from their debut EP, Tordor Overdose and Tordor Overdose II, which I think are acceptable too for the better part (especially the first one out of two). The rest of the album: ---