As the crushing, bottom heavy sonic force of "Enochian Prayer" plays, the only thought running through my mind is: "YES! Disembodied rules
where would I be without their destroying my ear drums right at this moment?" If you have ever given a spin or two or more to any Disembodied record, than you kind of have an idea of what the band is giving listeners on Psalms of Sheol. That being a compilation of their early EPs (Existence in Suicide and The Confession) some compilation tracks and the last recordings which previously were unavailable to the public that did not find the last, mysterious 7". If you have yet to experience the aural nastiness which Disembodied used to be known for in the mid to late 1990's, than Psalms of Sheol would not be a terrible starting point to experience the thick, pummeling sounds of the band.
With respect to the inclusion of the early material from Existence in Suicide (the first EP from the band and its inclusion does show the progression of the band) and The Confession (the second release from the band), the gems on this compilation album are without a doubt the first four tracks on Psalms Of Sheol. Seriously, these four tracks are made to crush people with their sheer heaviness and viciously pound them into the ground with the gut punching bottom end of the rhythm section; quite possibly, the entire reason for Disembodied's existence is beautifully illustrated by this first "chapter" on the record. Another neat addition to the record is that of the band's cover of a song by a certain washed up metal band (that shall remain nameless to protect the guilty parties), which just slays.
The warning siren sounding feedback effect of the guitars is a completely suitable opening for the pounding of "Enochian Prayer"; the bass is so ridiculous and provides a kinetic quality (literally if a listener has a serious sub-woofer on their stereo system) to the song, and the slower rhythm just emphasizes the sheer power of the bass and drums while the guitars perfectly contrast with their counterparts. "Epilogue" also provides its own helping of the ultimate heavy through pounding rhythms, squealing guitars, and vocals the tie the tumultuous furor of the music together; Musset's screaming his lungs out moments work well with his plaintive but non Pro Tools pussy-fying of his vocals (again more modern metalcore bands should take note of Disembodied's use of clean vocals because the overuse of Pro Tools pussy-fied clean vocals ruins any attempts to use them as a contrasting effect). The version of "Burning Cupid" on Psalms of Sheol is, quite simply (and no offense to the original version on If God Only Knew the Rest Were Dead), a nasty composition that is just such a great example of a heavy song; the screaming of "Killing Your Soul" is the icing on the cake of the track before the guitars fade out in a superbly noisy fashion.
Psalms of Sheol demonstrates that sometimes the older bands just do it better, but while Disembodied does embody this statement in regards to the newer crop of metalcore and heavier metal influenced hardcore, few bands if any truly reached the level of bottom end destruction that this Minnesota behemoth does on this (and their other records). In any case, this album makes every song on this retrospective available to all those who are and were fans of this band and any newcomers where everything on Psalms of Sheol was pretty much unavailable to the masses; the release of this comes at a great time as well as Disembodied seem to be gathering a bit of steam even to the point of possibly future material from the band. Until then, or even if that never happens, find this record and drop some of your hard earned money on Psalms of Sheol; anyone into heavy music should find plenty to move them on here.
