Disbelief - Protected Hell
Massacre Records
Death/Sludge Metal
12 songs (48:09)
Release year: 2009
Disbelief, Massacre Records
Reviewed by Thomas

This is album number eight from firmly established German death metallers Disbelief. With their sludgy and depressive death metal, they struck a soft spot in me, as I’ve been having quite a hard time lately. However, my rising expectations soon turned to dust for some reason, and despite some incredibly atmospheric and compelling songs that’ll make a huge impression on you, this gets far too one-sided. Except for the first couple of songs, this gets totally unexciting, as they tend to repeat themselves in major fashion song after song. Cut in half, Protected Hell would work much better, as twelve songs and fifty minutes gets completely uninteresting pretty fast. It’s like it’s more of a thrill to watch the grass grow. Let me elaborate a little. After a fitting intro and a couple of good songs to start out with, including the pretty awe-striking Hate/Aggression-Schedule, things start to melt together into a lifeless blurr that’ll leave you raising your eyebrows wondering what just happened. The riffs are getting duller and duller, with totally pointless and repetitive chugging, monotonous and less varied vocals, and an absent atmosphere which made the first couple of songs so great. Boring and totally uninspired songs like Hell Goes On, makes you want to rip your CD out of the stereo and break it. That is how bad and soulless some of the material on this record is.

What amazes me with this album is how incredibly inconsistent it is. Read on.

I shall not completely bury this album under my sea of frustration just yet though. As a reader you deserve more than my cohesive rant. These guys are carrying something unique with them that a lot of bands seem to be lacking. This is mostly boring as hell, but as I have mentioned earlier, this does contain some great songs which is a shame really. Despite the fact that this is violently varying in quality, they manage to catch glimpses of greatness with their very own way to grab the listener. If you’re in the right mood for it, and if you’re into atmospheric metal in general, you will discover that this definitely possesses something you’d like. Songs like The Return of Sin uses captivating chord combinations and harmonies that’ll make you shudder. Some of the spoken parts are bound to grab your attention, as they send chills down my spine when layered over the gloomy mood that has coloured this with a little hint of life. Also Karsten Jäger’s demonic screams does, despite being utterly monotonous at times, succeeds in haunting your mind with his gurgling roars once in a while.

This album is what defines a hit-or-miss release. Either you like it or you don’t. I liked what I heard at first, but it’s not worth it when the majority of the album is completely unappealing. Instead of bursting out, the songs stay lurking in the shadows with one or two exceptions. You wait for them to jump out on you and grab you by the throat, but that never happens. This is a lesson in inconsistency, nothing more and nothing less, thereby not recommended by me unless you’re into the monotonous one-sided part of things. Huge disappointment.

Killing Songs :
Hate/Agression-Schedule, One Nation's Son
Thomas quoted 55 / 100
Other albums by Disbelief that we have reviewed:
Disbelief - Worst Enemy reviewed by Danny and quoted 92 / 100
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