Today far too many citizens view their own psychic oppression and economic detainment with the psychopathic detachment of impartial observers, variously grinning and mewling at the events of a world’s stage growing more dim with every passing day as if it were “reality”-based entertainment, or, sport rather than lived decline. The froth of juvenilia-borne, feckless fomentation away from guaranteed rights and further from any agreeable “us” is exemplary human mediocrity distilled into a chattering mill of self-importance, opportunism and calloused souls which now render all they’d touch an alien landscape where the privilege of sedentary watchers will inevitably fade into denial and a slow, excruciating death. War, genocide, and especially politicide shouldn’t be lingering in mind as potential existential threat but stabbing at the cerebellum in panicked burst as the boot continues to stomp loudly overhead… a feeling which the gravel-grinding doom of Portland, Oregon-based quintet DISPOSSESSED further embody on this timely sophomore full-length album. No, ‘Dêmocide‘ isn’t a cleverly titled demo compilation but instead a clear acknowledgement of injustice the world over spent into a four segmented corpse and dragged through death, doom and the sludge of endtyme desperation. It also represents a bigger step taken into death-doom metal territory, achieving a next level of ouevre beyond the band’s already stoically lunged past.

Dispossessed formed circa 2014 by way of folks involved in their local array of noisecore, grind, black/thrash, death metal and hardcore punk scenery with the common goal of some manner of politically defiant, anti-authoritarian themed sludge/doom metal music. Their initial EP (‘Besieged‘, 2014) manifested quickly as “extreme sludge” clearly inspired by bands like Corrupted and Grief clinging to death-doom metal ruggedness while drafting a believable form of sludge metal. Around that time I’d remarked that they didn’t have the full range of say, the debut from Nightfell that year, but they were on their way to something similarly poured from a different angle upon ‘Into Darkness‘ styled atmosphere. This’d directly translated to the greyed out, feedback scorched and death-toned affectation of their debut LP (‘Exanimate‘, 2019) a brick heavy and determined plod of funereal minimalism given to highly focused columnar pieces.

Those same suggested traits translate into the on-fire breadth of ‘Dêmocide‘ and especially as ~10 minute opener “Exanimate” directly reflects the modus of the same-named album before it. This doesn’t limit where each piece worms and ultimately extends but sets us front and center within the thrum of a big riff and a bigger sound. The simplicity of that introduction trusts in the efficacy of the riff and only goes as far as serving melodic variant atop with some guitar feedback bookending its plod. The fixation available to this piece is satisfying bludgeon to start but for my own taste this is an extended introduction, a build toward the centerpiece of the albums interest per the sublime death/doom trampling of “Concrete Tomb” right afterward. The main rhythmic thread here is dismally cold, a concrete fed piece supported by a crisped-over rhythm guitar tone and given writhing bent at a slow-moshed pace. Truth be told my main interest at that halfway point generally centers around the bleak heft of Dispossessed‘s sound and what possibilities they’ve opened introducing double-bass drumming sprawl into their repertoire. That song’ll most likely be the biggest thumbs up for the pure death metal fan.

We are more securely in sludge metal territory on Side B with the scratching and snarling edge of “Opulent Doom” and “Watan” where Dispossessed‘s riffcraft remains focused on tightly synched but meandering roar-and-doom movement. This is where we’ve fully unearthed the appeal of the band’s work, both this new album and their larger discography, in that we find an excellent medium struck between the hissing groan and hairier tones of sludge metal alongside its natural linkage to death metal by way of doom. No one corner of their sub-genre nested triangulation is perturbed away from its core movement and I’d say for better or worse depending on your particular tastes for any one given form or tradition. The second half of the final track (“Watan/If I Should Die”) melts into fizzing synthesizer groan, slowed cleaner guitar thrumming and echoic growling in the distance which you could fairly view as a funeral doom, avant-sludge sort of idea which to me echoes at least a little bit of something like Bell Witch. I’d appreciated this as a tonal endpoint for the full listen, rescinding the “muscle” that powered their movement and leaving static-scratched noise and mournful prose in passage toward cessation.

While the message here is profound and the tone of ‘Dêmocide‘ taxing in some sense I wouldn’t make those arguments for a listening experience which expresses with such succinctness and ease. For all of the sonic excess served here all is buttoned-up, tightly performed and arranged to the point that Dispossessed appear as a timeworn and largely memorable death/doom metal band from any angle sans any too-rough edges. At just ~32 minutes and spaced equally between two sides it offers a brief, well-rounded and focused craft which goes largely unadorned beyond minimally fumed endpoint, leaving a tragedian but not-so lingering feeling behind. That said I’d found the overall curation, design and render of the experience easily approach, repeatable, and engrossing per its graven treatment of extreme doom tones. A high recommendation.

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