Disma

After 2009's well-received demo, Vault of Membros, Disma have launched their corpse-filled debut, Towards the Megalith. Filled with as many dead bodies, scattered limbs and foggy cemeteries as you're likely to encounter this (or any other) summer, Towards the Megalith is a masterwork of dreary death metal. With vocalist Craig Pillard (formerly of Incantation) growling like a demon, Disma's debut packs a pandemic level of scorching riffs and misery. The album is series of slow, lurching death growls, never really speeding up to the tempo that characterizes much of the death metal genre. Imagine Cannibal Corpse mixed with the kinds of sludge metal sounds coming out of the South. Like a zombie's gait, Towards the Megalith is slow but terrorizing. Disma makes great use of this slowed-down pace, bringing a sound that is thick, heavy and pungent, the sonic equivalent of a rotting crypt. To top it all off, the cover art is so spooky it makes Sauron's summit in The Lord of the Rings look like Disney Land. Towards the Megalith might not be beach tunes, but musically and lyrically it's a worthy death metal entry that shines in all key respects.