Album Review: Disfiguring The Goddess – Bloom (Seek and Strike)

‘Bloom’ is the new album from solo project Disfiguring the Goddess (Cameron Argon aka Big Chocolate), out 31st July via Seek & Strike.

As experimental as ever, Disfiguring the Goddess’ new album is a bit of a strange one. Beastly, the combination of slam, deathcore, industrial and electronica, certainly goes hard, but also results in head-scratching moments. Some of which are inspired and wholly unique, some of which are abrasive and ugly, and some of which that I personally find lacking. Not bad, per se, but not for me.

Thankfully those moments are very few and far between and mostly, I think this is a clever, exciting, and varied heavyweight album. One that showcases evolution, fresh creative directions, and plenty of that ‘old-school’ Disfiguring the Goddess intensity. Dare I saw that Big Chocolate has reached peak confidence? There’s certainly a swagger to this album, as the voice tells us emphatically on opener, Samba of the Faceless.

Things really get interesting with Echoes Fade, I Remain, which shows off the nastier side of Disfiguring the Goddess. Albeit with some intriguing melody-laced atmosphere. I like that, but I really like the noisy nonsense that Deathcore Song offers. A crunchy and ugly blast of brutality, nothing more and nothing less. Well, aside from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ending.

Elsewhere, AWOL creates a distinct environment that betrays genre dogmas, and I can’t help but enjoy that. Then there’s Low Slam Low, which can best be summed up as a knee-knocking, teeth-rattling, and bone-grinding effort. Whereas Deep Sway, Permission to be Claimed, Kiss the Dice, and Black Widow Spider show off an array of creative parts, some of which thrills and some of which chills. I may not like everything that comes from Disfiguring the Goddess, but you won’t hear me complain about getting my monies worth as far as ideas go.

The album features plenty of guests too. J Figure on the vitriolic Mask Off, Four Strike Baron on the manic madness of Sweet Dreams and on the vibrant oddity that is Dapper, and Bodybox on the filthy Goddess Box. The latter of which is so slow and heavy, it almost feels like a parody of deathcore. There’s a mix here, but the experimentation never seems to stop, even when things are stupidly heavy.

Finally, the latter part of the album (it is quite a long one) offers up some real challenging tunes. With Pleasure Island being laughably weird, but remarkably addictive. Then there is Old Man’s Bones and Lose the Head, with the former’s vocals spitting venom, and the latter’s blend of crushing metal blending perfectly with dramatic electronica elements. Leading to a big industrial focused finale called Penance, which I absolutely loved. It, and the others like it, are what excites me here.

I found Bloom to be a fascinating listen and there’s no doubt that Disfiguring the Goddess was overcome with creativity to make it happen. However, I think there is an egregious number of tracks here and not everything works. It’s the sort of album I can enjoy, but only in bits and pieces. What I like, I really like, and happily there’s plenty of that too. Credit to Big Chocolate though, I think this is an album people will be talking about for some time to come.

Disfiguring the Goddess – Bloom Track Listing:

1. Samba of the Faceless
2. Echoes Fade, I Remain
3. Deathcore Song
4. AWOL
5. Mask Off (feat. J Figure)
6. Sweet Dreams (feat. Four Stroke Baron)
7. Low Slam Low
8. Goddess Box (feat. Bodybox)
9. Deep Sway
10. Permission to be Claimed
11. Kiss the Dice
12. Black Widow Spider
13. Dapper (feat. Four Stroke Baron)
14. Pleasure Island
15. Old Man’s Bones
16. Lose the Head
17. Penance

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