Like many other veteran Scandinavian melodic death metal bands, Denmark's flagship act Illdisposed has evolved quite a bit in its twenty-plus year history. Though Illdisposed's early records reek of raw, old school brutality, the band's newer albums have a much more polished, groove-oriented style that takes plenty of cues from modern trends in death metal and metalcore. 2014's With The Lost Souls On Our Side, their twelfth full-length studio album, is a strong outing with enough mosh-inducing grooves to satisfy most extreme metal listeners, even if it has a different audience in mind than Illdisposed's classic nineties' albums did.
If you've kept an eye on modern thrash bands like Legion of the Damned and Dew-Scented, the sound of With The Lost Souls On Our Side shouldn't come as a total surprise. While still death metal at its core, the album relies heavily on thrashy grooves with touches of melody thrown in to keep things interesting. With a crisp production and polished musicianship to top it off, this is a very 'modern' sounding album that may not appease old school death metal purists, but for listeners that take a liking to contemporary thrash riffage, With The Lost Souls On Our Side has plenty to offer. Though not many tracks stand out from the crowd, all ten are solid enough to warrant a decent amount of headbanging.
I suppose my biggest gripe with this album is just how familiar it feels from start to finish. Though it isn't derivative enough to strip it of all merits, Illdisposed doesn't do anything here that hasn't been heard before, and as such, it's hard to give this record a strong recommendation to anyone that doesn't already follow the band. Still, this is a well-played, well-produced, and generally well-written observation that fans of modern death metal certainly won't regret hearing. This isn't the must-hear 2014 death metal album that Behemoth released earlier in the year, but it's certainly not anything to scoff at either.
Track Listing:
1. Going Down
2. The Way We Choose
3. Light In The Dark
4. I Am What I Am
5. Tugging At Your Heart
6. A Dreaded Pursuer
7. To Be Dealt With
8. On A Clouded Morning
9. No More Devil To Show
10. The Plan
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