Visceral, remorseless, and with an ebb that overflows beyond the confines of the soundscape and seeps its anguish into the reserves of the listener's mental fortitude, such animosity and macabre catharsis could only be achieved by few; there standing amidst the wastes of depravity, are the progenitors of this particular semblance of wrath: MENTAL DISASTER. Carrying with them their usual themes and particular style, "The Repulsive Abomination" continues the bands trek into the deeper waters of horror and defiance.

A shot within the dark, the stark bleak harbinger of what's to come the title track, "The Repulsive Abomination" opens the album; a creature of unabated virtue the song berates your senses with its sharpened start, stereophonic guitar work, and steeled progressions-the song succeeds in defining the shape and attitude of the band all within a hastened introduction. The next song to commence, "Disciples Of Ignorance," quickly fills in the void of silence left behind by its predecessor, and with no hesitation the band starts in full, albeit absent of the vocals which join in for the verse. The divisi of the voices serves to create dynamic and tension and the snare's distinctive departure from half-time to interspersed successions only add to song's character. "Testify And Repent" is perhaps the most direct song upon the album, and despite its short length still bears all the markings of the band, from the staccato rhythm progressions to the immediate shifts between half-time and double time. The tone of the band is characterized by its prowess of compositions just as much as the actual timbre and approach of the instruments wherein the guitars are comprised of an excellent, dark, and gritty sounding build which aptly defines the band's placement between Thrash and Death Metal; the bass contains monstrous undertones that succeed in defining a lower portion of the soundscape that few bands ever touch, one of the few that comes to mind of course is CARNIVORE; the drums are, in short, the most impressive instrumentation found upon the album, not to discredit the strings or vocals, but the grooves and rhythms are otherworldly, as if David Olsen were to summon the forbidden knowledge of Eldritch Horrors and apply it straight to the hits and strikes, the manner by which he weaves in and out of time, progression, and dynamic without any hesitation or stutter is superhuman; and lastly the vocals are all manners shrieking and guttural, difficult to find in clarity but simple to discern in evocative measures. The songs unfortunately don't offer a great deal of diversity in the band's favor, being composed of similar formulations that do not create distinctive identities from one end of the album to the other, take for example both solos in "Graveyards Symposium," and "Sword Of Vengeance," both have a strikingly similar construction wherein a descending arpeggio diverges into the root and harmony before the vocals come in and segue the way back to the verse, the solos are completely independent of one another, but the ending result is the exact same.

The great sound that is MENTAL DISASTER is as pungent as it is subtle, as nestled beneath the edifice of macabre deliveries lies compositions of greater ingenuity, those things that bear the marks of forethought and attention; the songs, "Graveyard Symposium," and "Sapiens So Pure," each contain sections whereupon the instruments highlight the strengths of one another, the drums accentuating the strings' ability to jump in and out of syncopation, the rapid flourish of string and beat that draw attention to the strained vocalizations, and the guitars' ability to blend seamlessly with one another yet still draw attention to both channels with subtle and intentional differences the music is self-evident in its own worth. For those that have never before heard the band's music, this album is a great introduction to sound and image, and of course returning fans will undoubtedly find greater connection in the familiar tones. Without question this album is one to satiate the hungry and attract the curious.