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Wait a minute … I think I’ve seen that creature-alien-guy
on an album cover somewhere before … I know I have …
Now, where was it?
Is this him?
No, wait, there he is …
Holy shit, this fucker is everywhere …
In all seriousness, Disarmonia Mundi’s The Isolation
Game is a dead ringer to Swedish death metal bands, namely
In Flames for the vocal screams, great guitar work and sound,
and Soilwork for the electronic aspects and clean, soaring
choruses. A lot of this can be attributed to Soilwork vocalist
Bjorn “Speed” Strid’s involvement. He was
actually a member of the band a few years back and provided
vocals on the albums, Fragments of D-Generation and
Mind Tricks. Of course, due to his Soilwork commitment,
he’s no longer a full-time member but still contributed
his voice to seven of the songs on The Isolation Game.
The Italian band was conceived in 2000 by Ettore Rigotti,
who plays all instruments, produces and engineers their albums.
Discounting Strid, it’s now a two-man show including
Rigotti and Claudio Ravinale, also on vocals. Got it?
Given the familiarity of Disarmonia Mundi’s sound and
the Soilwork connection, The Isolation Game doesn’t
break new ground. That said, it’s an excellent stopgap
between albums of the band’s I mentioned and really
just an extension of the current Swedish metal sound. To give
you a specific era, I’m talking about In Flames’
Reroute to Remain and Soilwork’s Natural
Born Chaos. Think of The Isolation Game more
as an extreme-melodic companion piece rather than a standalone
album. This is like that second disc of bonus features that
comes with your new DVD.
If you’re a fan of the subgenre, The Isolation
Game can do no wrong. It never gets too complex and sticks
to basic formulas. It falls short of brutal, yet it’s
fast and heavy, accessible and sometimes memorable. Strid
shares vocals with both Rigotti and Ravinale. They all give
great performances, interchanging and experimenting with different
effects and tricks. It’s hard to distinguish who’s
doing what from song to song except for Strid’s clean
parts. But ironically, the vocals may be the most original
thing on the album.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend The Isolation
Game for anyone that’s a fan of Swedish metal.
And alien creature-guys.
Standout tracks: “The Isolation Game,” “Blacklight
Rush”
®2010 Live-Metal.net
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