Band:	Dysperium
Album:	Dysperium
Style:	Black metal, Folk metal
Release date:	2009
A review by:	Lucas

01. I
02. II
03. III
04. IV
05. V
06. VI
07. VII
08. VIII
09. Interlude

Dysperium is a relatively unknown American Black metal two-headed act. Dysperium is their cleverly titled debut album, released on Frostscald Records. Let's get to it.

On Dysperium, we're treated to doomy (read: slow and brooding) Black metal with an occasional Folk-y touch. It's not really all that extreme, on more than a few occasions it sounds more like darkened Doom or Heavy metal. It may be just me and my general lack of interest in Heavy metal, but it are exactly these moments in which the band looses my attention. Overall it's not all that bad though, the skill and a certain knack for well-flowing songs is there. It's just a little unengaging and middle-of-the-road. The fact that the flow is often interrupted by acoustic 'folky' instrumentals and whatnot doesn't really help their case. On top of that, the scream of the vocalist is only barely passable.

Now that all my criticism is out of the way, let's focus on the good points. Although both a little 'inoffensive', both the structure of the songs and the clean vocals are easy on the ears and nice to listen to. As I said, these musicians know how to play their instruments, judging by the playful vibe hanging over the album. There's a cool solo here, a surprisingly loose (in a good way) arrangement there. And hey, as long as you're viewing this album as a collection of songs and not a fifty-minute 'journey', the interludes are actually pretty cool.

I'm not sure if the good outweighs the bad on this. In my opinion, it does not. Don't get me wrong, it's surely not a bad release. It just doesn't stand a chance/doesn't stand out, among the gazillion other Black metal releases.