Band:	Disperse
Album:	Living Mirrors
Style:	Djent, Progressive metal
Release date:	February 15, 2013
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

01. Dancing With Endless Love
02. Enigma Of Abode
03. Profane The Ground
04. Prana
05. Message From Atlantis
06. WOW!
07. Universal Love
08. Be Afraid Of Nothing
09. Unbroken Shiver
10. Touching The Golden Cloud
11. Butoh
12. Choices Over Me
13. AUM

As much as I love old progressive rock like King Crimson, Yes, Hawkwind, and Van Der Graaf Generator, most progressive metal tends to fall short for me. A lot of the bands within the style tend to appear to have an attitude of ultra showmanship by any means: you know, the types of bands that think they're cool for being able to cram over 100 time signature shifts into one song. Extravagance for the sake of extravagance, a feature that for me gets real old real quick. Poland's Disperse, however, are pleasingly different. With this band, it's more about the atmosphere of the music than it is about the technicality, and by focusing more on the music's mood than sheer virtuosity, they have managed to craft a fairly decent release with 2013's Living Mirrors.

Upon first listening to Living Mirrors, it would probably come across to the average person as modern prog metal employing the same formula as has become typical nowadays within the genre. And this would be a correct assumption actually, because the core of Disperse's sound does indeed rest upon that syncopated, off-beat, Meshuggah-type of riffage that has become something of a trademark within prog metal's composition these days (see "Unbroken Shiver" and "Enigma Of Abode" especially). So at face value, Disperse seem like just another wannabe djent band, or something along those lines. What, then, makes them stand out?

Well, the answer to that question comes in the dreamlike vibe that the band's two guitarists manage to generate with the beauty of their interweaving melodies. The beginning of "Message From Atlantis" is especially good; when the vocals kick in powerfully over that little mellow riff, it almost makes you feel as though you're in the legendary city of the track's title. This ethereal, subconscious-like atmosphere can make the album feel highly psychedelic at points, which is a pleasant, more relaxing shift away from the raw virtuosity that many other progressive contemporaries so often demonstrate. But the talent of Disperse's guitarist comes not only in their general melodies, but also in their excellently-carved leads, which demonstrate a mature technique of focusing more on individual notes for the sake of atmosphere than on a multitude of notes for the sake of awe. Check out around 2 minutes into "Unbroken Shiver," the middle of "Enigma Of Abode," and the brief intro to "Choices Over Me."

So in final judgment, Living Mirrors is, all around, a pretty good (above average, to be fair) cut of modern prog metal. A lot of the typical staples are there, such as the monotonous, chugging type of riff delivery and the vocals that sound a bit on the alternative side, like something out of a metalcore band, but that are much better in their overall delivery. At times this more conventional approach can make the listener (like me) that's fond of more outlandish types of composition a bit disappointed, as though Disperse should have further developed the psychedelic side of Living Mirrors into some stranger (possibly mind bending?) territory. But having said that, taken for what it is, the album's more atmospheric moments compensate for its more predictable ones, helping to give it an interesting (if not entirely unique) identity. Furthermore, Living Mirrors shows that Disperse definitely have potential to grow, and will hopefully push the more original moments of the album into some more mind-blowing areas in their future.