DISINFECT

Unless I'm misreading the info they sent along, German death metal squad DISINFECT hasn't released an album since 2001's "Beinspender" — an eternity in scene years. Apparently they've spent the entire long downtime working on adding twists, turns, and bits of virtuoso playing to their brutal, American-influenced death metal sound. It'd be easy to sum these guys up with a quick comparison — I'm leaning toward DYING FETUS-meets-SINISTER at the moment, though the temptation is there to mention KRISIUN and acknowledge their sheer neckbreak speed But whatever heroes they draw inspiration from, there's a surprising amount of creativity going on here amid the conventional flailing chaos of extreme gore-grind.

The basic formula is, of course, blindingly fast, ludicrously guttural death metal with a liverish fixation on the gory and diseased. And they fill all the checkpoints of that formula — over-processed, insanely fast double-kick drums, wicked riffing, burbling sewer-pipe vox — to the guaranteed satisfaction of any punter. But right away, there's a lethal, iron-fisted precision at work, evidence that DISINFECT may be more than your average glue-sniffing DM hessians. The title track displays a crafty riff and some relatively ornate guitarwork, without giving up an iota of the relentless brutality, and sports a mosh-part midsection that's all pinch harmonics and soaring, melodic soloing over a slow, grinding first-gear tank of a riff.

And what to make of the weird little time signature hiccups in "Ritual Sexual Abuse"? Or the virtuoso soloing in "Melted By Heat"? Even a song as straightforward as "Human Scum" has a cool little quasi-technical part that stands out amid the head-down assault. None of these flourishes are enough to make "Screams of Pleasure" transcend the genre, or anything like that — this is a gore/grind record through and through, and if you don't like the style, then there's the door. What DISINFECT have done is to infuse their creations with enough extra flair and individuality to raise the bar, and stand out among a teeming horde of digital butchers cranking out similar, more stagnant sounds. These guys are worth checking out and supporting, because it's rare to find such a combination of fierce loyalty to a core sound and willingness to improve on it within its boundaries. Hopefully we won't have to wait another eight years to hear more from these sickos.