I remember really being into "Not To Be Undimensionally Conscious", and later "Pleasuredome", when I was a kid. Metal combined with weirdness, that was exactly what I liked, and Disharmonic Orchestra were my heroes; along with Pungent Stench. However, when they split up I never really gave them much thought and it has been years ago now that I have played any of their albums. Their reincarnation was something of a surprise to me, and I can`t deny having been a little bit curious about what they would come up with. So, now "Ahead" is finally brought upon us, and I`m sad to say it doesn`t provoke any of the feelings I used to have when I was a kid. Sure, they still try to be experimental and in some ways they succeed, but mostly they just sound like they got stuck in the mid-90s. Their experimental side sounds outdated now, with many bands doing it better and more impressively (Dillinger Escape Plan, Red Harvest, Arcturus).

A good example is the song "Dual Peepholes", which has a beat underneath that sounds so archaic any modern band would be ashamed to use such cheap-sounding instruments. Sure enough I enjoy their jazzy approach at metal, and the songs on "Ahead" can be very catchy with excellent riffing ("Supervision") but nowadays Disharmonic Orchestra is really nothing more than `just another metal band`. Their best songs are probably "Nine9nine" and "Idiosyncrated", the only songs on which they really seem to offer something different. Hey, if you liked their first three albums you`ll like this one as well, but for those who expect something surprising or out-of-the-ordinary would do better looking elsewhere.