Review by Ben for Dismember - Indecent & Obscene (1993)

This album was always going to memorable, if nothing more than for its grotesque cover artwork. The title of the album itself was formed after they were described with those very words by a newspaper journalist. But Dismember certainly had a lot of work to do to stay relevant back in 1993. The Swedish death metal sound had already been done to death by a multitude of Entombed clones (themselves included). During the same year, Entombed decided to do something a bit different, with the death n roll album Wolverine Blues being the result. Dismember on the other hand decided to stick to their guns and went back to the standard Sunlight Studios sound for their sophomore release. They did however tinker with it somewhat, giving it a much cleaner production, while keeping those filthy chainsaw guitars. The drums are clean and crunchy and there's not as much of that noise of sound that was going on with the debut.

I think that while Like an Ever Flowing Stream will always be renowned as a genre classic, Indecent and Obscene would have to be my personal favourite album by the band. It perfectly combines fantastic melodies with an awesome level of violence. The leads are really nice, and the drumming is powerful while never being particularly technical. There are plenty of change-ups to keep you on your toes and I can't say things ever get boring throughout the 9 tracks. Highlight tracks for me are Case # Obscene, Skinfather and the fantastic closer Dreaming in Red. I can't give the album more than 4 stars, as there's nothing particularly original or creative about it, but Indecent and Obscene is right up there with Entombed's Clandestine when it comes to Swedish death metal at its finest.