Seven years can have a substantial effect on a band's timeline. Let's be honest, even less, a year can make a difference. However, it is all about survival and whether a group can get back on its feet after a hiatus, which could have easily ended up in disbanding. The early 90s German Death Metal act DISBELIEF showed enough dedication and confidence in themselves as a band and endured several lineup changes. The cause effect was intensive work on a new album to mark their latest musical deviations. The band's newest effort, "The Symbol of Death", via Listenable Records, can be noted as a newly forged face. The front might be similar, as it was never abandoned, yet, the magnitude of the deathly force fractured the skull in various different ways right before plunging into the mind.

That is evolution for you, whether you like it or not. DISBELIEF chose to move forward with the Death Metal affliction and correspond with modern elements to boost up their aspirations. There are still old school remnants in their music that might indicate of Thrash and Death Metal, bearing the challenging years of Metal music in the 90s, yet those slowly faded away to provide a room for bulldozing groove and slips of progression. For me "The Symbol of Death" emerged snapshots of ASPHYX / ILLDISPOSED / SEPULTURA and a squander of OBITUARY, nonetheless, it didn't just end with mere Metal. As the album shaped up, following the opener, I noticed a certain fascination with leafs of Alternative Rock features, more in the zone of RADIOHEAD and MUSE, and the darkened atmosphere generated by those bands' music. Entrapped by the bloody thorns of Death Metal, this particular mixture appeared to be promising, another dimension laid out for grabs. This aspect is part of the reason why this album crossed the barrier rather neatly.

The songwriting is contradictory, may drift into the simpler tracks and into the somewhere in the valley of complexion, yet not knee deep into technical merits or ingenuity. On the other hand, it was noticed that not everything lived up to be as grand as it sounded. While the intensity remained, the most part of the album didn't bear fruit as I hoped. DISBELIEF emerged as a destructive force with this album, pounding the flesh with violent riffs and powerful grooves and attacking beats, but slowly passed my attention without leaving a mark that would let me sink in back in their game. Even though, I believe that this band dished a release of elegance and articulation, a hard to the core fist nicely calculated to cause as much emotive and physical damage as possible. Be sure to check "Full of Terrors", "The Unsuspecting One", "Rest In Piece" and "The Circle", those will rattle your mind and puncture your soul. And of course, take a listen to the entire release, there is a good chance that you might disagree, or agree with my analysis.