If you missed 2009′s The Vault of Membros demo or this year’s Winterwolf split or The Manifestation 7″, take note: Clifton, NJ’s Disma is a suffocatingly down-tuned quintet led by legendary ex-Incantation (and Evoken, etc.) growler Craig Pillard. That’s likely enough to get you listening, but his insanely heavy, guttural lows are complimented by a perfectly fuzzed, cavernous, atmospherically deep wall of old-school death-metal doom ‘n’ crust powered by guitarist Daryl Kahan (Funebrarum, Abazagorath, Citizens Arrest, Assück), guitarist Bill Venner (early Incantation), bassist Randi Stokes (ex-Methadrone), and drummer Shawn Eldridge (Funebrarum). The pace is glacial, even when ex/imploding into rabid blasts. The riffs are huge and (yes) catchy. I usually hate when metal critics use words like “putrid,” “stench,” and/or “sickening,” but those words work here. (You may even want to find a clever way of saying it’ll make your bowels release.) The previous material’s excellent. Everything feels especially huge on the official full-length debut Towards The Megalith, my favorite death metal album of 2011 so far. (My favorite of its sort since Dead Congregation’s Graves Of The Archangels in 2008, I think.) Take a listen to the updated “Vault Of Membros” while focusing on the above cover art.

• Disma – “Vault Of Membros” 

Towards The Megalith:

01 “Chaos Apparition”
02 “Chasm Of Oceanus”
03 “Spectral Domination”
04 “Vault Of Membros”
05 “Purulent Quest”
06 “Lost In The Burial Fog”
07 “Of A Past Forlorn”
08 “Towards The Megalith”

Towards The Megalith is out 7/19 via Profound Lore. According to the label, the (awesome) album cover art is “just a segment of an entire painted scenario.” Looking forward to seeing it all.