The Secret

Disintoxication

[3.5/5]

Really, who doesn’t like witnessing progression? Only the most self-loathing of music critics and catty gossip columnists enjoy watching a band, person or situation devolve into a train wreck. After an offering of passable but bland metalcore on 2004’s Luce, this quartet from Eastern Italy got their Converge on for this explosive slab. The layout and design may reek of ’70s softcore porn/horror, but the din within is pure ’00s ’core, specifically drawing from Converge’s Jane Doe, You Fail Me and No Heroes. The guitars spit out slashing discord on “Umea” and the rapid-fire “Intoxication,” working in acerbic contrast to the rusty sonic razors slowly grinding against the senses on “Death To Pigs” and “Kill The Dead.” If Disintoxication has a fault, it’s that much of the Secret’s slant has already been tackled by their major influence three albums over. But if metal can look at itself in the mirror after picking at Black Sabbath’s corpse lo’ these many years, then hardcore definitely has room for these bruisers. (GOODFELLOW) Kevin Stewart-Panko