DISFEAR
Fear Not, Lest Ye Be Feared...
By: David Perri
If pure adrenaline were a recreational drug, saps with needles in their arms or straws up their noses wouldn't be addicted to those tremors. Instead, they'd all be hopped up on the velocity of the adrenal gland, eyes impossibly wide open and energy never at a loss. Press that hypothetical adrenaline fix on to plastic and you've got Disfear's Misanthropic Generation, a record that dares you to take life by the horns and is amongst 2003's finest sonic explosions. Now featuring workaholic Tomas Lindberg and the support of Relapse Records, Disfear is prepared to storm the planet proper.
"A big part of our sound is a combination of Discharge, Motorhead and Entombed," explains guitar player Bjorn Pettersson. "We fit somewhere in the middle of all that. I listen to Wolverine Blues a lot; it's an amazing record. I've always wanted us to sound like that. We're also heavily influenced by Discharge, but I'm also a big fan of Black Flag and Minor Threat is a favorite. Tomas took a lot from the American hardcore bands, especially Attitude Adjustment."
It doesn't take much to realize that each one of the aforementioned bands were, at most times in their respective catalogues, speed freaks infatuated with super-fast riffs. Playing sociologist for a moment, I ask Pettersson where his fascination with the up-tempo originates. He responds with a hearty laugh. "Some riffs aren't really that fast at the beginning. But then when we start rehearsing, and Tomas will say, 'Let's go! Let's play faster!' Everyone in the band has an effect on the sound, but I really think it's because we just listen to so much fast stuff. Like the first Napalm Death. It's fuckin' brilliant."
It's taken six years for Misanthropic Generation to see the light of day, but the long wait hasn't been due to stagnation. Rather, Disfear has seemingly been the flashpoint for an immense string of bad luck. "There were a lot of problems after the last record in 1997. We toured the album, but we realized Osmose wasn't the right label for us, and they didn't know the right channels for this type of music. There are no hard feelings between us, but both sides decided it would be best to split. Then we were going to sign with WAR. We had studio time booked, but the studio had a big project they were working on so they cancelled our sessions two or three times. Then we went to studio Dugout, but a similar situation happened. WAR got tired of waiting, so things fell out. It's no one's fault, but we got tired of waiting also. It was a strange situation. We had twelve tracks written, we just needed to record them. We thought it would be really stupid to split up the band just because we couldn't record. I ran into Mieszko [of Nasum] at a concert, and we decided to record a few tracks label-less at his studio, Sound Lab. Mieszko knew the people at Relapse, so he asked if they'd be interested. Relapse was, but then it took time to set up contracts and the actual recording process. Then Tomas was involved with his other projects, so the recording was spread out over a year rather than our usual two weeks. And, after six years, it's finally out! (Laughs)"
From the pages of BRAVE WORDS AND BLOODY KNUCKLES www.BraveWords.com
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