Dispossessed Democide Review

Dispossessed

Democide

Carbonized Records

2025

Portland, Oregon circa 2014. A ferocious, lumbering mastodon melding doom, sludge, and death metal known as Dispossessed is born into an unsuspecting world. They wreak havoc, they crush cities, and maim onlookers while challenging injustice, encouraging critical thinking, and addressing societal collapse. They turn the mirror on us with engaging, emotionally charged, and often scathing compositions.

The prehistoric monolith has returned after their 2019 debut Examinate to bring us the equally loathsome and dismal four songs from Democide. Dispossessed are a quartet (comprised of members K. Jewett – guitar, bass; M. White – guitar; M. Du Bose – vocals; and L. MacDonald – drums), and they employ their influences of bands such as Corrupted, Asunder, Winter, and Grief to powerful effect. Slow-burning riffs, pained death growls, raw aggressive energy, and a downright bleak atmosphere throughout are the order of the day here. Make time for this one, because even though it's only an EP, the running time is 32:13. The first track, “Examinate,” clocks over ten minutes, and album closer “Watan – If I Should Die” breaks that barrier as well. Don't be put off by the lengthy songs; they offer enough groove and interesting arrangements so that you're never finding yourself bored or thinking a particular section of any song is overstaying its welcome.

What Dispossessed do incredibly well is employ enough stop-start parts, speaker-rattling bass interludes, and powerhouse drumming against impossibly low-tuned fuzzy, buzzsaw guitars that even though the pace is that of a snail, it's still heavy as all fuck and maintains my attention. I would even venture to say that BECAUSE these songs march on with trance-like precision, they are that much weightier and more impactful. Sometimes low and slow bashing is even more brutal than going as fast as possible. Read that last part twice, tech bands. ;)

Democide was recorded by Mike Vera at VeraTone (Juliana Hatfield, Great Falls) and mastered by James Plotkin at Plotkinworks (Earth, Sunn O))), Khanate, Amarok). The result is a thick slab of molten lava that just creeps forward to devastate and incinerate the entire population. One nod I hear from the band is that of the late, great Morgion and their album Solinari. Maybe not musically, but in the moods captured here for sure. The world is a dark, disjointed, and divisive place. Dispossessed just gave us a cold, venomous soundtrack for the most troubled of times. They speak of “systemic violence, environmental destruction, and carceral injustice, grounding their work in anti-authoritarian ideals,” and we NEED an album so angry right now. This fucking rules. To put it quite crassly: turn it on, turn it up, and watch the world burn along with them…

RIYL : Grief, Corrupter, Winter, Mythic, Morgion

~TB