From: Forgotten Path Magazine; Issue 8
Published: November 2016
Magazine Website

No one would deny that Australia always had a considerably strong and varied scene in most Extreme Metal styles. Doom Metal is not so much of an exception. Names like Disembowelment (now incarnated as Inverloch) and Mournful Congregation make Doom Metal’lers around the world bow their heads in reverence. It is highly possible that these entities are not the only ones to turn Doom Metal listeners’ attention and interest to. And here is a new project of a creatively restless man with possibly Lithuanian roots as his surname undisputedly suggests. Terry Vainoras is the man behind Subterranean Disposition. Keen on trying his skills in a different genre, this project is one of two endeavours that are related to Doom Metal (another one is InSomnius Dei). “Contagiuum and the Landscapes of Failure” is the second album of this project. While the self-titled was a Doom all right, to classify the successor simply a Doom Metal would be inaccurate for the most parts. The spine is constructed on the fundamental rhythmic characteristics of Post-Metal. Ponderous, monotonous and even beats never fluctuate in tempo. This, however, reduces the aspect that largely should be considered as essential in what makes Doom Metal - Doom Metal. In that respect this facet of “Contagiuum and the Landscapes of Failure” is merely present in a larger paradigm among other stylistic inserts. As already it was pointed out this album is way more Post-Metal than Doom Metal, though not without falling into the trap of the style. By that I mean the common stigma of many Post-Metal bands. A repetitive nature of the music (which is not necessarily bad, but it is a thin edge to walk along “too much” and “enough”). Subterranean Disposition’s music partly suffers from this hollowness. Even adding a small array of extra-instruments, like saxophone in a few songs, not only does this not work much in the album’s favour, hiding seemingly underdeveloped compositions, but adds a somewhat superficial eclectic manner to them (though it sounds nice).

The fundamental problem is that “Contagiuum and the Landscapes of Failure” does lack a bigger impact and focus. Of course experimentation always offers a possibility to discover and apply interesting results, but it takes time and to distil those essential elements. And since the production work was done really quite decently in this case, the aforementioned issues are the main things what could be improved in the future. 

Reviewed by: Skol