October 1, 2001 - Disillusion and Three Neuron Kings

Three weeks after my last release a new band joins my library when Disillusion released their debut EP "Three Neuron Kings" on October 1, 2001. But who is Disillusion? They are a four-piece progressive metal band from Leipzig, Germany consisting of Alex Tscholakov (drums, percussion), Ralf Willis (bass), Rajk Barthel (guitar) and Vurtox (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards). Disillusion play a fairly heavy style of metal at times, but also have a lighter, more melodic side and they mix the two in a nice, progressive way. Let's see what their debut EP is all about!

The EP begins with "In Vengeful Embrace" and it's driven by some fast ajd pretty cool guitars and backed by some nice heavy bass and solid fast drums. Vurtox's voice is somehow not quite a scream, but it's a really heavy, deep voice that fits the music pretty nicely. He sings at times as well, and you really here his accent when he sings, but his singing voice is just good, and his deep heavy almost-scream sounds way better to me. After a few minutes of heavy goodness they shift into a quiet, soft new riff with some decent light guitar and Vurtox singing in his very German voice. The segue nicely back into a heavy riff with Vurtox reverting to his heavy voice and we hear some more catchy and cool guitars from both Vurtox and Barthel. This song is almost six minutes and they pack in lots of heavy and cool stuff towards the end, a pretty good introduction to Disillusion! Up next is "Expired" and Vurtox plays some creepy and cool keyboards in the background of a nice heavy main riff. The verse is fairly tame with Vurtox singing but the chorus is heavier and sounds pretty good. After a couple rounds they do a nice job of building things up, only to drop us off a cliff into a quiet new riff. Vurtox sings and plays his creepy organ and they nicely and slowly ramp back up from here to the heavy chorus. Track 3 is "The Long Way Down To Eden" and it's got a pretty cool main riff with lots of cool guitars, some more heavy bass to back it, and some pretty cool drums as well. Vurtox yells in the really cool and heavy verse, then things calm down just a bit in to chorus as Vurtox switches to singing, but the music is still nice and fast. They don't stray too far from these, but there's a bunch of good guitar the whole way through, including a long solo towards the end that isn't too flashy, but it fits the mood nicely and sounds pretty epic. A pretty cool tune! The last song on the EP is the title track "Three Neuron Kings" and one guitarist starts us off with an epic light guitar riff, then the other comes in with some cool heavy guitar and the combination works quite well together! After a minute of this they segue nicely into a heavy and more typical main riff with both guitarists playing some cool electric stuff now. When Vurtox begins the first verse, he switches back to lighter guitar, and he keeps switching back and forth between the light and heavy. There are thankfully more heavy parts and words don't do justice to all the cool guitar riffs in this one. It's over six minutes and there's someone playing some cool guitar the whole time! Easily my favourite off the EP!

That is the end of "Three Neuron Kings" and I thought it was a solid debut EP from Disillusion. Both guitarists are great and there's plenty of cool heavy and progressive metal on this EP. Vurtox is an interesting vocalist, but he sounds pretty solid most of the time. I can't wait to hear their first full album! 

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