Cadaver Inc. - Discipline

CADAVER INC. - Discipline (EARACHE - CD 2001)

Oh, these Norwegians. They really did dare to exhume their legendary death metal band Cadaver, transform it into Cadaver Inc and create a totally new concept. More so, they completely changed the music, for something what sounds like a hybrid of death and black metal, played in most vicious and relentless form known to the Norge people. How could they? Hehe! Don’t worry though! I have no problem with that! More so, I actually really like what “Discipline” offers, even if it is so unlike to “Hallucinating Anxiety” and “…In Pains” LPs. They are like two completely different bands, so maybe this Inc. in the end of their name makes some sense – although it was only temporary, one off thing, as for the next album they came back to being just Cadaver. So it is all just a matter of concept for “Discipline”, which brought a lot of controversy to the band and which was very clever, I think. What was it? Well, let’s just say the band “offered” some unusual service hehe, dealing with cleaning the crime scene, getting rid off the dead bodies, evidence etc. Cool, ha! The band even had some problems with the Norwegian officials because everything looked so real… supposedly hehe. Image and concept aside, “Discipline” is a totally different record to the previous Cadaver releases and that is a fact. 

I remember that the first song, which I have heard from “Discipline” was the opening track, “Primal”. And I remember that this song made a strong impact on me; I loved it immediately, even if this whole Cadaver Inc. had nothing to do with the old band, which I liked so much as well. But at that time - around 2001 I think - I was still hugely infected by such Norwegian bands as Mysticum, Satyricon (from “Rebel Extravaganza” LP, which I love!), DHG, Red Harvest and Thorns, then also by Zyklon (debut LP!) and Mayhem, later also Disiplin… So, mainly the Moonfog roster, with bands, which incorporated more untypical sounds into the cold and harsh black metal and made the whole music sound even more inhuman and cold. And Cadaver Inc with their new album fitted to this style as well. There’s this cold and grim feeling in their music and it also has this unique style of riffing. There’s only one difference here – Cadaver Inc. may have a lot of black metal harshness and coldness, but it also has some quite classic, sometimes almost thrashing riffs, which is as cool as unusual.

I remember that this whole Moonfog take on the futuristic black metal received a lot of criticism and there were probably more people, who disliked it than those who found something amazing and throat cutting in it. Personally, I just did not care about that whole condemnation, probably because this criticism was often coming from closed minded people, who were filled with envy and who were not able to lurk further than the shadow of their own arse. For me such LPs as “Thorns”, “Satanic Art”, “World ov Worms” and “Rebel Extravaganza” were and still are truly superb pieces! And “Discipline” is just equally good. 

Besides, I wouldn’t exaggerate much about that futuristic and industrial side of this album. Sure, it may have some traces of it and more so, even if it doesn’t use many samples and weird sounds, the style of riffing and vocal sound may bring you such resemblances. But “Discipline” is more oriented on the violent, stabbing, harsh and relentless black / death / thrash metal than on anything else. This album is just wonderfully straight forward, so powerful and energetic that it could probably wake the dead up! A huge portion of it is played is vigorous, fast pace, which is just blasting with ferocity and energy… It explodes with a great strength and I just love how it affects the listener, beating him up to the blood and meat, so dense and powerful this music is. It sounds fantastic, with that black metal, inhuman feeling and awesome vocals of Apollyon, who really is one of my favourite vocalists ever. And more so, the album is far away from being one dimensional, as there are also many slower and almost catchy, memorable moments, like “Rupture” and “Point Zero”. 

Whatever Cadaver Inc. would play, it always sounds just great and I love that inhuman, apocalyptic, cold atmosphere, which this album evokes. And it is always just powerful as hell. I love the vocals, amazing drumming of Czral… yeah, you can really feel it is something special. And what’s the best about this record also is that all – really, all! – songs are just top notch and very even, all are excellent and whole album is like a damn hurricane, which will destroy everything on its way. Yes, very, very good material and in my opinion it is a must to have for all maniacs. I hope that one day it will also appear on the vinyl, as I’m a freak and would love to have this and “Necrosis” on LP, since I have the two early albums of Cadaver of black wax already. 

Standout tracks: “Primal”, “Murder head”, “Rupture”, “Point Zero”

Final rate: 85/100