Disfear has faced death more than once in its decades-long career: the group lost bassist Henke Frykman in 2011 and this year lost both drummer Marcus Andersson and vocalist Tomas Lindberg, but not before completing the band’s new album, The Last Nail. “Tomas and Marcus were extremely proud of their performances on this album, as we all are, and we invite you to hear their final performances on The Last Nail,” the band wrote on social media.
The simple and direct cover design of The Last Nail says something about the songs. They’re all unsurprisingly D-beat Swedish hardcore with a dry and somehow joyful (or as has been described, defiant) sound. “Open to the Night Within” will get heads bobbin’, “Cyanide” would be a crowd pleaser if it was played live (and contains a lick which sounds strangely close to the end of “War Pigs”), and the final track “The Last Nail In the Last Coffin on Earth” brings things home with an anthemic sound. The whole record is solid, though, and while I can’t say how it compares to other releases in Disfear’s catalog, I think it needs to be heard by fans of the band.
I only saw Disfear once, years ago when the band was on a U.S. tour and played a gig in front of a couple hundred or so people in Washington, D.C. The main thing that struck me was the stone-cold confidence with which the band played. This should have been unsurprising, given that the bandmembers were mostly veterans of the Swedish death metal scene. Tomas Lindberg looked like he was having a ball.
There’s two tracks from the new album released online, “Early Graves,” below …
Followed by “Shackled to Our Vice,” below.
The Last Nail is up for preorder from Relapse Records on CD, LP, cassette, and digital, and is coming out November 20, 2026. (A limited edition pressing with an alternate cover is sold out and the proceeds were donated to the Swedish Cancer Society.)
Photo: Robert Samsonowitz