Disgorge Mexico

Following F**k the Facts' debut for Relapse, Stigmata High-Five might have seemed a rougher prospect at the time, given the departure of bassist Steve Chartier after the tour and the band's relative silence for some months following that. But Disgorge Mexico found the group in rude good health, quite happily playing in whatever styles and approaches suit their fancy. The dreamily, darkly beautiful guitar solo on "Dead End" is as much a part of the arsenal as the power metal pomp-into-neo-thrash rampage on the opening "Borders," but it's all still Topon Das and company once more. Mel Mongeon's singing remains crucial throughout the album, with showcase moments like her turn on the cascading midsong break on "As Empires Expand and Collapse" being well-deserved attention getters. The sense of constant shift between steadier paces and full-on speed throughout the album, not to mention most of the songs, demonstrates both a certain formalism and a sense of how to keep it interesting; if songs like "Absence and Despite" and "Driving Through Fallen Cities" feel like they explore familiar areas on the one hand, they're thrillingly performed at every step of the way. Credit has to be given to some amazing song titles that fully work with their songs: having a brawling, near-boogie number called "La Culture du Faux" seems duly barbed. There's also something strangely right and inspiring about the concluding song, "Apathy Is a Karma Killer," with the downbeat, saddening tinge of its sound an apt take on the struggle with the problem indicated.