#dyingfetus — Public Fediverse posts

“Scordatura” is an Italian word that means “mistuning.” This is a technique used for stringed instruments to allow for bizarre chords, or to simplify progressions that would require a lot of tendon mutilation to achieve in normal tunings. It’s a dope name, a cool concept, and an example of metal’s infinite ability to make badass monikers out of otherwise clinical, innocent terminology. Hailing from Scotland, rather than the land of leaning towers and opera, Scordatura have arrived with their 4th opus, Led Into Oblivion. Between their choice of title and their selection of album name, what sort of hellish soundscape awaits within?

With a name rooted in deep music theory, you’d expect an assault in the vein of Replicant or modern Pestilence. This is not the case. Scordatura lay their foundations off a respectable set of giant shoulders, featuring a high octane assault flavored primarily with the self-titled era of Cryptopsy. Drums are blasted, guitar strings are shredded, and the tempo maintains a consistently blurry pace. “Retali(H)ate” and “Led Into Oblivion” feature start-stop riffing with vocalist Daryl Boyce sounding like the lost brother of Matt McGachy in his earlier days, with the occasional sustained chord letting drummer Tam Moran show off flair and chops with rapid-fire cymbal fills. Doses of classic Vader stomp pepper “Oppressed Repressed”, and nods to Suffocation run through “Echoes of a Fractured Mind”. The flavor of the olde and trve are deeply embedded throughout the construction of Led Into Oblivion, all filtered through an exuberant attack that rarely pauses for breath.

In keeping with the stylings, Led Into Oblivion also keeps up with the sound. This album is meaty, layered, and not the most dynamic beast, but all instruments are given room to breathe by brutal death standards. A healthy dollop of pinch harmonics flow throughout the riff construction, and bassist Liam McCafferty is constantly heard clanging away in the background with the occasional spotlight given for a fill or scale. The concise runtime (about the length of Reign in Blood, yet another nod to the building blocks of greats) ensures ear fatigue doesn’t set in despite the perpetually speedy approach. A good track order does keep variety from cut to cut, with “A Manic Indoctrination” featuring open chord progressions and our first dose of real mid-tempo sound before the drums resume blasting away under the building menace. While being a well-arranged list of brutal death tropes, Scordatura wisely leave the concrete brick styled production in the past.

The only major blemish on Led Into Oblivion is a common one, but one that cannot be overlooked. Scordatura have spent so much time distilling the essence of the greats into their overall sound without capturing the distinguishing factors that made them great. “Existential Termination” dalliances with downtempo Cannibal Corpse, and the grindier moments of WWtFW era Dying Fetus as well as Deicide raise their head, but these snapshots lack the staying power of those names. Led Into Oblivion is an enjoyable release without any significant flaws, but it’s difficult to recall any standout moments once the album reaches its conclusion. This is disappointing, as Scordatura clearly have the skills to emulate all of these bands, but can’t quite stick the landing on a stank face triggering “rewind it and listen again” moment to distinguish it from their mountain of peers. Closer “Begging to Die” is an easy illustration, goes full New York style with a bouncy main riff which smacks of modern Pyrexia groove before trying to drop an Archspire verse (sans the vocals) and leads the listener to a thunderous but blurred conclusion.

Despite a name implying forays into the more uncomfortable realms of death, Scordatura have offered up a platter of decent-grade tribute to the death of olde. Led Into Oblivion isn’t a bad album, and is definitely worth a casual listen or three. But the band is still on the hunt for the X Factor to push them beyond their influences. They certainly have the playing chops, and I believe the compositional ability to make it come together. For now, let yourself be Led Into Oblivion and hear a good combination of the sounds of yore; just don’t be surprised when you find yourself wishing you were listening to their influences instead.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: June 19th, 2026

“Scordatura” is an Italian word that means “mistuning.” This is a technique used for stringed instruments to allow for bizarre chords, or to simplify progressions that would require a lot of tendon mutilation to achieve in normal tunings. It’s a dope name, a cool concept, and an example of metal’s infinite ability to make badass monikers out of otherwise clinical, innocent terminology. Hailing from Scotland, rather than the land of leaning towers and opera, Scordatura have arrived with their 4th opus, Led Into Oblivion. Between their choice of title and their selection of album name, what sort of hellish soundscape awaits within?

With a name rooted in deep music theory, you’d expect an assault in the vein of Replicant or modern Pestilence. This is not the case. Scordatura lay their foundations off a respectable set of giant shoulders, featuring a high octane assault flavored primarily with the self-titled era of Cryptopsy. Drums are blasted, guitar strings are shredded, and the tempo maintains a consistently blurry pace. “Retali(H)ate” and “Led Into Oblivion” feature start-stop riffing with vocalist Daryl Boyce sounding like the lost brother of Matt McGachy in his earlier days, with the occasional sustained chord letting drummer Tam Moran show off flair and chops with rapid-fire cymbal fills. Doses of classic Vader stomp pepper “Oppressed Repressed”, and nods to Suffocation run through “Echoes of a Fractured Mind”. The flavor of the olde and trve are deeply embedded throughout the construction of Led Into Oblivion, all filtered through an exuberant attack that rarely pauses for breath.

In keeping with the stylings, Led Into Oblivion also keeps up with the sound. This album is meaty, layered, and not the most dynamic beast, but all instruments are given room to breathe by brutal death standards. A healthy dollop of pinch harmonics flow throughout the riff construction, and bassist Liam McCafferty is constantly heard clanging away in the background with the occasional spotlight given for a fill or scale. The concise runtime (about the length of Reign in Blood, yet another nod to the building blocks of greats) ensures ear fatigue doesn’t set in despite the perpetually speedy approach. A good track order does keep variety from cut to cut, with “A Manic Indoctrination” featuring open chord progressions and our first dose of real mid-tempo sound before the drums resume blasting away under the building menace. While being a well-arranged list of brutal death tropes, Scordatura wisely leave the concrete brick styled production in the past.

The only major blemish on Led Into Oblivion is a common one, but one that cannot be overlooked. Scordatura have spent so much time distilling the essence of the greats into their overall sound without capturing the distinguishing factors that made them great. “Existential Termination” dalliances with downtempo Cannibal Corpse, and the grindier moments of WWtFW era Dying Fetus as well as Deicide raise their head, but these snapshots lack the staying power of those names. Led Into Oblivion is an enjoyable release without any significant flaws, but it’s difficult to recall any standout moments once the album reaches its conclusion. This is disappointing, as Scordatura clearly have the skills to emulate all of these bands, but can’t quite stick the landing on a stank face triggering “rewind it and listen again” moment to distinguish it from their mountain of peers. Closer “Begging to Die” is an easy illustration, goes full New York style with a bouncy main riff which smacks of modern Pyrexia groove before trying to drop an Archspire verse (sans the vocals) and leads the listener to a thunderous but blurred conclusion.

Despite a name implying forays into the more uncomfortable realms of death, Scordatura have offered up a platter of decent-grade tribute to the death of olde. Led Into Oblivion isn’t a bad album, and is definitely worth a casual listen or three. But the band is still on the hunt for the X Factor to push them beyond their influences. They certainly have the playing chops, and I believe the compositional ability to make it come together. For now, let yourself be Led Into Oblivion and hear a good combination of the sounds of yore; just don’t be surprised when you find yourself wishing you were listening to their influences instead.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: June 19th, 2026

Maybe war never changes, but Warside has. Between releasing inaugural EP The Enemy Inside, and recording their debut, three of Warside’s five members left the band. Now a quartet, the Lyon, France collective tromps into the death metal arena, brandishing Cognitive Extinction, their first long play. Down a guitarist, Warside reports Cognitive Extinction as having ‘a rawer, more direct sound.’ Though The Enemy Inside can’t be classified as polished or subtle, Cognitive Extinction embraces an even leaner, meaner aggression through twenty-eight minutes. Additionally, Warside weaves a broad theme into the album—the erosion of intelligence and critical thinking due to the proliferation of screens and dependence on technology. It’s an increasingly relevant theme in these crazy times, but is Warside’s warning enough to keep listeners’ gray matter from atrophying into pudding?

Though simply billed as ‘death metal,’ Warside skews towards the technical end of the spectrum. Dying Fetus, Misery Index, and Vomitory are cited as influences in the promo materials, and while elements of those bands exist on Cognitive Extinction,1 I also hear the frantic immediacy of Benighted and Aborted enmeshed with the tech-heavy grooves of more recent Cryptopsy and Suffocation. Technical without falling into technical death metal territory and bruising without earning a brutal death metal tag, Warside toes the line between extreme metal subgenres without fully committing to any specific one. Rather than wavering or wandering, though, Cognitive Extinction sounds confident, direct, and ready to peel your skull back to get a look at your cognition firsthand.

Despite adding some new members and shuffling guitar duties, Warside launches a savage assault that never relents. Returning from The Enemy Within, guitarist Vincent Morelle resumes six-string duties on Cognitive Extinction while former guitarist Jérôme dons the mantle of bassist. Joining them are duo Mathieu (vocals) and Thô (drums) from deathgrind project Festering Process, and together this foursome unleashes barrage after barrage of merciless death metal thunder. Tracks “Neurocide” and “Invasive Thoughts” meld Morbid Angel’s wicked melodies with Nile’s violent velocity, frequently coaxing involuntary stank-face. “Visceral” punches with Suffocation’s might, windmilling between stutter-stop leads and kick drum cannonades, while “Thirst for Rot” dive bombs into an early solo before hitting a swarthy Cryptopsy-meets-Decapitated groove. Throughout, Mathieu discharges fierce gutturals that remind me of Benighted’s Julien Truchan,2 primal and bloodthirsty without ever going full BREEE. All told, kinetic hooks, furious blast beats, and husky bass grooves carry the momentum of each track, with feverish solos offering brief detours from Warside’s otherwise unyielding onslaught.

Warside evokes death metal titans throughout Cognitive Extinction, yet clinging too tightly to these touchstones prevents them from fully realizing an identity of their own. In fairness, Cognitive Extinction works cohesively, with a consistent aural context that’s as bludgeoning as it is swift. And even though Warside sidesteps critical flaws, hooking an overcrowded niche with deathly wares can be a significant challenge. Genre greats can provide a strong template for writing compelling music, but emulation without innovation risks giving listeners an experience that drives them back to inspirations. Said simply, bands with unique sounds become reference points, while others get buried beneath the sands of time. In this regard, Cognitive Extinction feels like a half measure, where a blend of influences comes together to form a coherent album, yet lacks a wholly original voice.

Standout performances and sharp, economical songwriting distinguish Warside as an act I’ll follow closely, and help achieve a portion of the identity they need. Cognitive Extinction teems with talent and promise, and despite the abysmal dynamic range,3 the mix is well-balanced and allows listeners to appreciate what Warside does within its runtime. I’ve greatly enjoyed my time with Cognitive Extinction, and a couple of its gems have helped add some weight to my Heavy Moves Heavy ’26 playlist, but with so many killer death metal albums out this year, I’m unsure what lasting impact it’ll have. Time will tell, and in the meantime, I hope that Warside continues honing their blades to keep minds and interest sharp.

Rating: Good!
DR: 3 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Gruesome Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 17th, 2026

Maybe war never changes, but Warside has. Between releasing inaugural EP The Enemy Inside, and recording their debut, three of Warside’s five members left the band. Now a quartet, the Lyon, France collective tromps into the death metal arena, brandishing Cognitive Extinction, their first long play. Down a guitarist, Warside reports Cognitive Extinction as having ‘a rawer, more direct sound.’ Though The Enemy Inside can’t be classified as polished or subtle, Cognitive Extinction embraces an even leaner, meaner aggression through twenty-eight minutes. Additionally, Warside weaves a broad theme into the album—the erosion of intelligence and critical thinking due to the proliferation of screens and dependence on technology. It’s an increasingly relevant theme in these crazy times, but is Warside’s warning enough to keep listeners’ gray matter from atrophying into pudding?

Though simply billed as ‘death metal,’ Warside skews towards the technical end of the spectrum. Dying Fetus, Misery Index, and Vomitory are cited as influences in the promo materials, and while elements of those bands exist on Cognitive Extinction,1 I also hear the frantic immediacy of Benighted and Aborted enmeshed with the tech-heavy grooves of more recent Cryptopsy and Suffocation. Technical without falling into technical death metal territory and bruising without earning a brutal death metal tag, Warside toes the line between extreme metal subgenres without fully committing to any specific one. Rather than wavering or wandering, though, Cognitive Extinction sounds confident, direct, and ready to peel your skull back to get a look at your cognition firsthand.

Despite adding some new members and shuffling guitar duties, Warside launches a savage assault that never relents. Returning from The Enemy Within, guitarist Vincent Morelle resumes six-string duties on Cognitive Extinction while former guitarist Jérôme dons the mantle of bassist. Joining them are duo Mathieu (vocals) and Thô (drums) from deathgrind project Festering Process, and together this foursome unleashes barrage after barrage of merciless death metal thunder. Tracks “Neurocide” and “Invasive Thoughts” meld Morbid Angel’s wicked melodies with Nile’s violent velocity, frequently coaxing involuntary stank-face. “Visceral” punches with Suffocation’s might, windmilling between stutter-stop leads and kick drum cannonades, while “Thirst for Rot” dive bombs into an early solo before hitting a swarthy Cryptopsy-meets-Decapitated groove. Throughout, Mathieu discharges fierce gutturals that remind me of Benighted’s Julien Truchan,2 primal and bloodthirsty without ever going full BREEE. All told, kinetic hooks, furious blast beats, and husky bass grooves carry the momentum of each track, with feverish solos offering brief detours from Warside’s otherwise unyielding onslaught.

Warside evokes death metal titans throughout Cognitive Extinction, yet clinging too tightly to these touchstones prevents them from fully realizing an identity of their own. In fairness, Cognitive Extinction works cohesively, with a consistent aural context that’s as bludgeoning as it is swift. And even though Warside sidesteps critical flaws, hooking an overcrowded niche with deathly wares can be a significant challenge. Genre greats can provide a strong template for writing compelling music, but emulation without innovation risks giving listeners an experience that drives them back to inspirations. Said simply, bands with unique sounds become reference points, while others get buried beneath the sands of time. In this regard, Cognitive Extinction feels like a half measure, where a blend of influences comes together to form a coherent album, yet lacks a wholly original voice.

Standout performances and sharp, economical songwriting distinguish Warside as an act I’ll follow closely, and help achieve a portion of the identity they need. Cognitive Extinction teems with talent and promise, and despite the abysmal dynamic range,3 the mix is well-balanced and allows listeners to appreciate what Warside does within its runtime. I’ve greatly enjoyed my time with Cognitive Extinction, and a couple of its gems have helped add some weight to my Heavy Moves Heavy ’26 playlist, but with so many killer death metal albums out this year, I’m unsure what lasting impact it’ll have. Time will tell, and in the meantime, I hope that Warside continues honing their blades to keep minds and interest sharp.

Rating: Good!
DR: 3 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Gruesome Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 17th, 2026

Despised Icon – Shadow Work Review

By Owlswald

Widely regarded as one of the original architects of deathcore, Canada’s Despised Icon hardly needs an introduction. But just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two decades, here’s a brief introduction: back in 2002, when MySpace was all the rage and everyone had a friend named Tom, five dudes from Montreal dropped their debut LP, Consumed by Your Poison. Heavily influenced by the likes of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, these Canadians continued to hone their crushing sound on 2005’s The Healing Process by injecting metalcore and hardcore elements into their deathly framework. This unique formula culminated with their third LP, The Ills of Modern Man (2007)—the crown jewel of their discography that made Despised Icon deathcore royalty. The rest, they say, is history. Fast forward 18 years and, following a hiatus and three subsequent albums, the group has now readied their seventh LP, Shadow Work. So, dust off that windbreaker and lace up your best pair of New Balance kicks; it’s time to dive into Shadow Work.

In typical Despised Icon fashion, the opening title track instantly rips one’s jaw from its joints with a strong, technical launch. Leading the assault is Éric Jarrin and Ben Landreville’s signature pitch-shifted guitar squeals (a staple since 2019’s Purgatory), which, alongside rapid-fire tremolo scales, synchronize perfectly with Alex Pelletier’s blistering rhythms and Sebastien Piché’s grinding bass to fuel the album’s heavy, frenetic passages. The dual-headed vocal attack from Alex Erian and Steve Marois sounds as strong as ever, alternating raspy screams, slam-style pig squeals and hardcore chants that add a sharp, aggressive edge. Guest spots from Matthew Honeycutt (Kublai Khan TX), Scott Ian Lewis (Carnifex) and Tom Barber (Chelsea Grin) compliment Erian and Marois’ delivery but ultimately land with mixed results. Shadow Work’s powerful first half (“Shadow Work” through “The Apparition”) proves Despised Icon can still execute with the same ferocity as on past efforts. Conversely, Shadow Work’s energy wanes toward the end with formulaic pit anthems (“Obsessive Compulsive Disaster,” “Fallen Ones”) settling into a cliché hardcore spirit, though the record’s strongest material warrants repeat listens.

The first half of Shadow Work delivers a powerful blend of technical proficiency and a dash of genre experimentation before the album settles into a more formulaic hardcore groove. “Death Of An Artist” is a straight-up, drum-driven banger that introduces new wrinkles like clean vocals, dissonant high leads and a tasteful thrash and death eeriness that adds fresh flavor to Despised Icon’s well-known formula. Similarly, “The Apparition” is a relentless burner, injecting elements of symphonic death and black metal while maintaining the group’s core sound. Across the album’s succinct 37 minutes, monolithic breakdowns are plentiful—tense builds frequently give way to gut-punching beatdowns replete with fret slides (“Shadow Work”), air raid sirens (“The Apparition”) and stutter-step riffing (“Death of an Artist”), delivering a seismic release and an irresistible urge to pit.

However, Shadow Work hits a predictable wall at its midpoint, slumping into an over-reliance on tropey, Hatebreed-adjacent, inspirational anthems. Characterized by pervasive gang vocals, two-step riffs, and cheesy lyrical themes, tracks like “Fallen Ones,” “Obsessive Compulsive Disaster,” and “Reaper” feel less about pushing Despised Icon’s established deathcore boundaries and more about catering to the masses, thereby detracting from Shadow Work’s initial aggression. While Scott Ian Lewis’ gruff, thrashy vocal textures on “In Memoriam” effectively add a new element and the raucous “Omen of Misfortune” or “ContreCoeur” offer relief, Despised Icon’s heavy reliance on clichéd, tough-guy hardcore vocal cadences and themes holds Shadow Work back. For instance, lines like “From the ground up, never gave up, from the gutter to the surface” (“Reaper”) leans too far into its hardcore roots. Even the otherwise stronger early track “Over My Dead Body” is hampered by a cheesy hardcore/nu-metal feel in its bridge, its jarring cadence and Honeycutt’s yelling of “bitch” further exposing Shadow Work’s central weakness.1

Shadow Work is a good record marred by frustrating dualities. The first half unleashes the punishing, technical ferocity and syncopated slams that cement Despised Icon’s legacy as godfathers of deathcore. Yet, Shadow Work’s potential is sacrificed in the latter half, by leaning too hard on formulaic, predictable hardcore anthems. By repeatedly prioritizing comfortable clichés over their trademark sound, Despised Icon ultimately delivers an uneven album that only teases at the complete savagery fans know these legends are still more than capable of delivering.

Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: despisedicon.com | facebook.com/despisedicon
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025

#2025 #30 #CanadianMetal #Carnifex #ChelseaGrin #Deathcore #DespisedIcon #Devourment #DyingFetus #Hatebreed #KublaiKhanTX #NuclearBlast #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #ShadowWork #Suffocation

Despised Icon – Shadow Work Review

By Owlswald

Widely regarded as one of the original architects of deathcore, Canada’s Despised Icon hardly needs an introduction. But just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two decades, here’s a brief introduction: back in 2002, when MySpace was all the rage and everyone had a friend named Tom, five dudes from Montreal dropped their debut LP, Consumed by Your Poison. Heavily influenced by the likes of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, these Canadians continued to hone their crushing sound on 2005’s The Healing Process by injecting metalcore and hardcore elements into their deathly framework. This unique formula culminated with their third LP, The Ills of Modern Man (2007)—the crown jewel of their discography that made Despised Icon deathcore royalty. The rest, they say, is history. Fast forward 18 years and, following a hiatus and three subsequent albums, the group has now readied their seventh LP, Shadow Work. So, dust off that windbreaker and lace up your best pair of New Balance kicks; it’s time to dive into Shadow Work.

In typical Despised Icon fashion, the opening title track instantly rips one’s jaw from its joints with a strong, technical launch. Leading the assault is Éric Jarrin and Ben Landreville’s signature pitch-shifted guitar squeals (a staple since 2019’s Purgatory), which, alongside rapid-fire tremolo scales, synchronize perfectly with Alex Pelletier’s blistering rhythms and Sebastien Piché’s grinding bass to fuel the album’s heavy, frenetic passages. The dual-headed vocal attack from Alex Erian and Steve Marois sounds as strong as ever, alternating raspy screams, slam-style pig squeals and hardcore chants that add a sharp, aggressive edge. Guest spots from Matthew Honeycutt (Kublai Khan TX), Scott Ian Lewis (Carnifex) and Tom Barber (Chelsea Grin) compliment Erian and Marois’ delivery but ultimately land with mixed results. Shadow Work’s powerful first half (“Shadow Work” through “The Apparition”) proves Despised Icon can still execute with the same ferocity as on past efforts. Conversely, Shadow Work’s energy wanes toward the end with formulaic pit anthems (“Obsessive Compulsive Disaster,” “Fallen Ones”) settling into a cliché hardcore spirit, though the record’s strongest material warrants repeat listens.

The first half of Shadow Work delivers a powerful blend of technical proficiency and a dash of genre experimentation before the album settles into a more formulaic hardcore groove. “Death Of An Artist” is a straight-up, drum-driven banger that introduces new wrinkles like clean vocals, dissonant high leads and a tasteful thrash and death eeriness that adds fresh flavor to Despised Icon’s well-known formula. Similarly, “The Apparition” is a relentless burner, injecting elements of symphonic death and black metal while maintaining the group’s core sound. Across the album’s succinct 37 minutes, monolithic breakdowns are plentiful—tense builds frequently give way to gut-punching beatdowns replete with fret slides (“Shadow Work”), air raid sirens (“The Apparition”) and stutter-step riffing (“Death of an Artist”), delivering a seismic release and an irresistible urge to pit.

However, Shadow Work hits a predictable wall at its midpoint, slumping into an over-reliance on tropey, Hatebreed-adjacent, inspirational anthems. Characterized by pervasive gang vocals, two-step riffs, and cheesy lyrical themes, tracks like “Fallen Ones,” “Obsessive Compulsive Disaster,” and “Reaper” feel less about pushing Despised Icon’s established deathcore boundaries and more about catering to the masses, thereby detracting from Shadow Work’s initial aggression. While Scott Ian Lewis’ gruff, thrashy vocal textures on “In Memoriam” effectively add a new element and the raucous “Omen of Misfortune” or “ContreCoeur” offer relief, Despised Icon’s heavy reliance on clichéd, tough-guy hardcore vocal cadences and themes holds Shadow Work back. For instance, lines like “From the ground up, never gave up, from the gutter to the surface” (“Reaper”) leans too far into its hardcore roots. Even the otherwise stronger early track “Over My Dead Body” is hampered by a cheesy hardcore/nu-metal feel in its bridge, its jarring cadence and Honeycutt’s yelling of “bitch” further exposing Shadow Work’s central weakness.1

Shadow Work is a good record marred by frustrating dualities. The first half unleashes the punishing, technical ferocity and syncopated slams that cement Despised Icon’s legacy as godfathers of deathcore. Yet, Shadow Work’s potential is sacrificed in the latter half, by leaning too hard on formulaic, predictable hardcore anthems. By repeatedly prioritizing comfortable clichés over their trademark sound, Despised Icon ultimately delivers an uneven album that only teases at the complete savagery fans know these legends are still more than capable of delivering.

Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: despisedicon.com | facebook.com/despisedicon
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025

#2025 #30 #CanadianMetal #Carnifex #ChelseaGrin #Deathcore #DespisedIcon #Devourment #DyingFetus #Hatebreed #KublaiKhanTX #NuclearBlast #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #ShadowWork #Suffocation

Symphobia – Hideously Traumatic Review

By Alekhines Gun

Another day, another fresh debut by a slab of young hopefuls. Today’s offering comes by way of Indonesia in the form of trio Symphobia, dropping their first LP Hideously Traumatic after a sole self-titled demo the year before. At a concise two songs and sporting some charmingly ghoulish artwork, that demo was a vile little slab of promising violence, which leaned more into the modern slam trappings of Submerged than the usual brutal death proper Indonesia is known for. No member turnover and a short gap between releases imply a band with a musical vision and an eagerness to slot themselves into the next generation of woe-bringers; do they offer enough to get you back to therapy?

Symphobia have crafted a monument to brutal death of all varieties and walks of life. Trimming down the more overt slam clichés in the production of their demo (particularly the outlandish ping-pong snare) allows for a more matured1 take, walking a tightrope between solid deathly compositions and neanderthalic bludgeoning. Vocalist Jossi Bima does a dead ringer of an Angel Ochoa impression, but a talent for vocal phrasing (and vocal silence) means he actually adds to the percussive oomph of the riffs. (“Scattered”, “Convulsively”) Humam Aliy is a beast on the drums, working a limited set of ingredients into a well-concocted aural meal, with excellently placed sixteenth-note fills and masterfully selected double bass to give the illusion of dynamics and pacing even as the whole of the album never really lets up. The bass2 consistently makes itself felt with shreddage and twangy highlights, adding girth to an absolute smorgasbord of riffs.

Much like waves add texture to an otherwise flat and bland ocean, Hideously Truamatic offers a sense of the nuanced differences in brutal death strains of DNA to add personality to what threatens to be an overly homogenous listen. Do you like Misery Index? “Convulsively” has you covered. Do you think War of Attrition is the best Dying Fetus album?3 “Heinous” sports a riff worthy of a lost B-side from that era. The fingerprints of Pathology, Suffocation, Internal Bleeding, modern Pyrexia, and Cephalotripsy permeate the album, with the glue from highlight to highlight running through the eternal assault of …And Time Begins era Decrepit Birth. While Symphobia begin in familiar form, each time you think you’ve heard the best the album has to offer, the next song manages to come out swinging with a steel chair to top whatever offensive groove or thunderous breakdown came before it. Dodik Bhre offers up one riff-craft lesson after another, with a surprising emphasis on the occasional trebly runs instead of all-bass-all-bottom-end tropes. Songs like “Scattered” and “Abominable” stretch beyond the typical haze of blast beats and powerchord abuse, touching on the most straightforward moments of Defeated Sanity while lurching into a Disgorge-ian sense of mercilessness.

The only negative on such a balls-out assault of this caliber is a common one: the shadow of ones peers. Symphobia have grasped the ingredients of what makes all these other bands great, and distilled their essence into a blender of an album where the listener is tossed in to get slapped in the face with one meaty chunk after another. However, Hideously Traumatic comes across as a highlight reel of various stylings without forming into a cohesive identity for the band themselves. This is a love letter to the foulest and most pit-inducing of aural violence, and the letter is written in excellent handwriting and high-quality paper. I believe the best is yet to come, however, and if they can master the art of wielding their influences into a distinct final offering rather than being a mega-high grade tribute band, they will be ready to drop a slab of carnage to stand alongside the Brodiquins and Devourments of the world.

Just when I thought I was done with brutal death for a bit, Symphobia came out of nowhere with hammers and chainsaws to take my already abused ears to even more dire straits. Indonesia can be proud of its newest offspring, which continues to solidify the country’s reputation for a flourishing scene. That Hideously Traumatic reminds greatly of genre giants is hardly the worst flaw in the world. For now, seekers of euphoria-inducing savagery should find a high worthy of their time, with some truly traumatic moments indeed.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Websites: Official Facebook | Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 11th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Brodiquin #BrutalDeathMetal #Cephalotripsy #ComatoseRecords #DecrepitBirth #DefeatedSanity #Devourment #Disgorge #DyingFetus #HideouslyTraumatic #IndonesianMetal #InternalBleeding #Jul25 #MiseryIndex #Pathology #Pyrexia #Review #Reviews #Submerged #Suffocation #Symphobia

Symphobia – Hideously Traumatic Review

By Alekhines Gun

Another day, another fresh debut by a slab of young hopefuls. Today’s offering comes by way of Indonesia in the form of trio Symphobia, dropping their first LP Hideously Traumatic after a sole self-titled demo the year before. At a concise two songs and sporting some charmingly ghoulish artwork, that demo was a vile little slab of promising violence, which leaned more into the modern slam trappings of Submerged than the usual brutal death proper Indonesia is known for. No member turnover and a short gap between releases imply a band with a musical vision and an eagerness to slot themselves into the next generation of woe-bringers; do they offer enough to get you back to therapy?

Symphobia have crafted a monument to brutal death of all varieties and walks of life. Trimming down the more overt slam clichés in the production of their demo (particularly the outlandish ping-pong snare) allows for a more matured1 take, walking a tightrope between solid deathly compositions and neanderthalic bludgeoning. Vocalist Jossi Bima does a dead ringer of an Angel Ochoa impression, but a talent for vocal phrasing (and vocal silence) means he actually adds to the percussive oomph of the riffs. (“Scattered”, “Convulsively”) Humam Aliy is a beast on the drums, working a limited set of ingredients into a well-concocted aural meal, with excellently placed sixteenth-note fills and masterfully selected double bass to give the illusion of dynamics and pacing even as the whole of the album never really lets up. The bass2 consistently makes itself felt with shreddage and twangy highlights, adding girth to an absolute smorgasbord of riffs.

Much like waves add texture to an otherwise flat and bland ocean, Hideously Truamatic offers a sense of the nuanced differences in brutal death strains of DNA to add personality to what threatens to be an overly homogenous listen. Do you like Misery Index? “Convulsively” has you covered. Do you think War of Attrition is the best Dying Fetus album?3 “Heinous” sports a riff worthy of a lost B-side from that era. The fingerprints of Pathology, Suffocation, Internal Bleeding, modern Pyrexia, and Cephalotripsy permeate the album, with the glue from highlight to highlight running through the eternal assault of …And Time Begins era Decrepit Birth. While Symphobia begin in familiar form, each time you think you’ve heard the best the album has to offer, the next song manages to come out swinging with a steel chair to top whatever offensive groove or thunderous breakdown came before it. Dodik Bhre offers up one riff-craft lesson after another, with a surprising emphasis on the occasional trebly runs instead of all-bass-all-bottom-end tropes. Songs like “Scattered” and “Abominable” stretch beyond the typical haze of blast beats and powerchord abuse, touching on the most straightforward moments of Defeated Sanity while lurching into a Disgorge-ian sense of mercilessness.

The only negative on such a balls-out assault of this caliber is a common one: the shadow of ones peers. Symphobia have grasped the ingredients of what makes all these other bands great, and distilled their essence into a blender of an album where the listener is tossed in to get slapped in the face with one meaty chunk after another. However, Hideously Traumatic comes across as a highlight reel of various stylings without forming into a cohesive identity for the band themselves. This is a love letter to the foulest and most pit-inducing of aural violence, and the letter is written in excellent handwriting and high-quality paper. I believe the best is yet to come, however, and if they can master the art of wielding their influences into a distinct final offering rather than being a mega-high grade tribute band, they will be ready to drop a slab of carnage to stand alongside the Brodiquins and Devourments of the world.

Just when I thought I was done with brutal death for a bit, Symphobia came out of nowhere with hammers and chainsaws to take my already abused ears to even more dire straits. Indonesia can be proud of its newest offspring, which continues to solidify the country’s reputation for a flourishing scene. That Hideously Traumatic reminds greatly of genre giants is hardly the worst flaw in the world. For now, seekers of euphoria-inducing savagery should find a high worthy of their time, with some truly traumatic moments indeed.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Websites: Official Facebook | Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 11th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Brodiquin #BrutalDeathMetal #Cephalotripsy #ComatoseRecords #DecrepitBirth #DefeatedSanity #Devourment #Disgorge #DyingFetus #HideouslyTraumatic #IndonesianMetal #InternalBleeding #Jul25 #MiseryIndex #Pathology #Pyrexia #Review #Reviews #Submerged #Suffocation #Symphobia

"Ist das Sterben eines Fötus Deathcore"
Ich denke diese Frage werde ich morgen abend umfänglich beantworten können.
(Unterwegs nach Dresden um morgen in der Reithalle dabei zu sein)

#DyingFetus #DespisedIcon #Dresden #Deathcore

Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

The scattering guitar stabbings and inertia-rupturing kick runs of Defeated Sanity’s earlier exhausting oeuvre fell blurry in early critical discussion.1 And while the brutal death loving scene at large may have found less issue with what Psalms of the Moribund up to Passages into Deformity offered in terms None So Vile-indebted,2 frenzied groove, 2016’s Disposal of the Dead // Dharmata cemented with a two-pronged approach Defeated Sanity’s tonal heaviness and technical prowess. From humble roots as a father-son project between kit commander Lille Gruber and now departed jazz journeyman Wolfgang Teske, these German slam summoners have grown alongside post-Suffocation flagbearers like the shred-snappy Dying Fetus and hammer-wielding Devourment in a manner far more rhythmically studied. Growth as a concept, though, in this genre which pursues with relentless, murderous intent the swinging arms and whipping necks of its consumers, can present in forms contradictory to its primal base of mouth-frothing riff drags.

Yet, the chase towards the limits of extremity has defined both the trajectory of brutal death metal and Defeated Sanity. In turn, 2020’s career high mark The Sanguinary Impetus expanded upon Defeated Sanity’s frenetic, gutter-tuned madness and jazzy, warm, nimble-footed stimulations through the engineering expertise of extreme metal’s greatest ally, Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts),3 allowing the impact of Defeated Sanity’s free brutality to land with frightening precision. Organic and cutting, Gruber’s kit—already a known highlight in the Defeated Sanity brand—finds dynamic tones that separate gravity-rated snare rolls from rimshot murder calls, push synth toms that evoke a Peart/Reinart bouncing homage (Rush, Cynic, respectively, particularly on the outro to “Temporal Disintegration”)4, and spread cymbal accents that kiss the edges of the soundscape to dissipate the madness. Marston’s fuller control over Chronicles manages chaos while still showcasing the depth of play that Defeated Sanity possesses.

In reaction to the preceding overdosed-on-Watchtower expedition, Chronicles stomps with its steel-toes caked in Suffocation-by-jazz-graduates fervor, serving stank, slam, and snare-drills in equal and obnoxious measure (“The Odour of Sanctity,” “Extrinsically Enraged”). None of what Chronicles has festered in the Defeated Sanity think tank plays worlds different than previous work, but its leanness and excess in detail forces repeated, engaging listens. For the unbaptized, speed-adorned, hammering snare runs break open the brutal death flood gates and reinvigorate its half-time crawls with little concern for whether the listener will be able to hang along for the breakneck ride (“Amputationsdrang,” “Accelerating the Rot,” “A Patriarchy Perverse”). Oh, and those crawls, engorged and dripping with a primal passion, land often with all the calamitous force that Defeated Sanity promises.

But for all the rage and ragged riffcraft that Defeated Sanity splays about the festering crooks and scabbed-over crannies of Chronicles, their undeniable attachment to groove as an anchor remains vital to success. The guitar work across any Defeated Sanity album comes second in technicality to Gruber and longtime bassist Jacob Schmidt. But its ability to punctuate rumbling, fret-clanging pulses with a percussive treble accent (“Temporal Disintegration,” “Extrinsically Enraged”), or dance about Gruber’s best Bobby Jarzombek (Spastic Ink, Fates Warning) impressions (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”) and hellish blasts (“Amputationsdrag,” “Accelerating…”), gives Chronicles an amplified weight that it needs. Defeated Sanity’s continued mission to layer rhythm upon rhythm upon rhythm—including vocalist Josh Welshman’s poetically metered, putrid, and unintelligible spews—finds an important tether in this thoughtful technicality.

Brutal death metal at its most basic level expresses the aggression of death metal through lenses of increasing absurdity and Defeated Sanity’s continued refinement of their devious dialogues tethers with ease the listener to their every wile. Whether brief like the grinding intro of “Amputationsdrang” or extended like the techy spasm of the penultimate “Condemned to Vascular Famine,” each run on Chronicles of Lunacy comes loaded with more impressive moments than any listener could hope to remember in entirety. But the beauty in the snarling and crushing atmosphere that Defeated Sanity creates exists in its ability to switch from knuckle-scraping slam to finger-testing climb as if all were one from the beginning. Chronicles of Lunacy, as a honed interpretation of Defeated Sanity already proven métier, finds an easy spot in the upper tier of their storied catalog—and it doubles as a killer neck exercise.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist | Bandcamp
Websites: defeatedsanity.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/DefeatedSanity
Releases Worldwide: November 22nd, 2024

Maddog

Three decades in, Defeated Sanity remains just out of reach of convenient descriptors. They’re too proggy to be Cryptopsy, but far too brutal for Death; too slammy for Suffocation, but too riffy for Wormed; neither noodly enough for Origin nor grindy enough for Dying Fetus. A distinctive medley of familiar pieces, Defeated Sanity has always targeted maximum brutality, in both their caveman slam breaks and their superhuman technical flourishes. This has resulted in one of brutal death metal’s most unassailable discographies; even their most recent album The Sanguinary Impetus earned a 4.0 and a handful of list spots in 2020. Its follow-up Chronicles of Lunacy charts charted waters, but it’s a jolt of adrenaline nonetheless.

Defeated Sanity’s signatures swirl together on Chronicles of Lunacy. Despite picking up a new lead guitarist in Vaughn Stoffey (whose main cred appears to be an adjunct professorship in jazz guitar), the band’s guitarwork is as fearsome as ever. Chronicles’ most technical riffs maintain a strong sense of melody, even in their syncopated flailing. Brutal near-OSDM sections offer a respite, interspersed with bouts of slam. Defeated Sanity’s prog proclivities are tasteful but omnipresent, like the jazzy outro of “Temporal Distintegration” and the off-kilter rhythms of the opener “Amputationsdrang.” Indeed, while there are more differences than similarities, Defeated Sanity remains mandatory listening for fans of Human-era Death. Long-time bassist Jacob Schmidt holds it all together, with vivid bass lines that thump without farting.5 And as always, Lille Gruber’s drums marry the rhythmic prowess of Mike Smith (Suffocation) with the snare-heavy circus act of Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy). Every member of Defeated Sanity balances high-brow compositional wizardry with serf-friendly jams.

Even at its most unhinged, Chronicles of Lunacy is impossible to tune out. Defeated Sanity has cracked the code; the secret to musical success is to sound both interesting and thrilling. Parts of Chronicles lean one way or the other, like the mesmerizing drum patterns of “Condemned to Vascular Famine” and the shameless slam of “Accelerating the Rot.” But the album’s triumph is its ability to blur the line among its diverse strengths. Miraculously, one of its most memorable riffs is the opening of “Temporal Disintegration,” whose Wormed melody slays despite its indecipherable rhythm. Similarly, Defeated Sanity’s breakdowns use a strong sense of melody to escape slam’s typical idiocy (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”). A chunk of credit goes to Colin Marston’s production job. Marston’s talent is undisputed, but he outdoes himself with a lush guitar sound that honors both Defeated Sanity’s cutting riffs and their technical spectacles. Despite its twists and turns, Chronicles of Lunacy has lodged in my memory much more than I’d expected.

But if you blink, you might miss it. While Chronicles teeters on the edge of lunacy through much of its runtime, it sometimes steps over the edge. The album’s earlier cuts suffer the most, sometimes leaving me confused about how their chaotic pieces fit together (“The Odour of Sanctity”). More generally, when songs shapeshift so frequently, they can lose their sense of identity. For example, while “Extrinsically Enraged” blends Killing on Adrenaline and Pierced from Within riffs that each drag me in, its hectic mix of ideas makes the track less recognizable. Still, these are outliers in a record that otherwise showcases thoughtful writing. Gruber’s drum shenanigans superglue disparate sections together, as do the expertly executed fade-in melodies (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”). The closer “Heredity Violated” deserves special mention, with a climactic introduction, a skull-shattering main riff, and an ebb and flow that make it my favorite closer of 2024. Overall, Chronicles of Lunacy’s loose seams are just small holes in a tight-knit garment.

With bands like Wormed, Noxis, and Nile churning out stellar releases in 2024, brutal death metal has already given us more than we deserve. Defeated Sanity’s latest is just the cherry on top. Sanity’s Lunacy rewards patience, and its frenzied darting between technicality and brutality is a head-scratcher even after weeks of attention. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of 2024’s most endearing death metal releases.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

#2024 #40 #BrutalDeathMetal #ChroniclesOfLunacy #Cryptopsy #Death #DeathMetal #DefeatedSanity #Devourment #DyingFetus #GermanMetal #Nov24 #Origin #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #SpasticInk #Suffocation #TechnicalBrutalDeathMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #Watchtower #Wormed

Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

The scattering guitar stabbings and inertia-rupturing kick runs of Defeated Sanity’s earlier exhausting oeuvre fell blurry in early critical discussion.1 And while the brutal death loving scene at large may have found less issue with what Psalms of the Moribund up to Passages into Deformity offered in terms None So Vile-indebted,2 frenzied groove, 2016’s Disposal of the Dead // Dharmata cemented with a two-pronged approach Defeated Sanity’s tonal heaviness and technical prowess. From humble roots as a father-son project between kit commander Lille Gruber and now departed jazz journeyman Wolfgang Teske, these German slam summoners have grown alongside post-Suffocation flagbearers like the shred-snappy Dying Fetus and hammer-wielding Devourment in a manner far more rhythmically studied. Growth as a concept, though, in this genre which pursues with relentless, murderous intent the swinging arms and whipping necks of its consumers, can present in forms contradictory to its primal base of mouth-frothing riff drags.

Yet, the chase towards the limits of extremity has defined both the trajectory of brutal death metal and Defeated Sanity. In turn, 2020’s career high mark The Sanguinary Impetus expanded upon Defeated Sanity’s frenetic, gutter-tuned madness and jazzy, warm, nimble-footed stimulations through the engineering expertise of extreme metal’s greatest ally, Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts),3 allowing the impact of Defeated Sanity’s free brutality to land with frightening precision. Organic and cutting, Gruber’s kit—already a known highlight in the Defeated Sanity brand—finds dynamic tones that separate gravity-rated snare rolls from rimshot murder calls, push synth toms that evoke a Peart/Reinart bouncing homage (Rush, Cynic, respectively, particularly on the outro to “Temporal Disintegration”)4, and spread cymbal accents that kiss the edges of the soundscape to dissipate the madness. Marston’s fuller control over Chronicles manages chaos while still showcasing the depth of play that Defeated Sanity possesses.

In reaction to the preceding overdosed-on-Watchtower expedition, Chronicles stomps with its steel-toes caked in Suffocation-by-jazz-graduates fervor, serving stank, slam, and snare-drills in equal and obnoxious measure (“The Odour of Sanctity,” “Extrinsically Enraged”). None of what Chronicles has festered in the Defeated Sanity think tank plays worlds different than previous work, but its leanness and excess in detail forces repeated, engaging listens. For the unbaptized, speed-adorned, hammering snare runs break open the brutal death flood gates and reinvigorate its half-time crawls with little concern for whether the listener will be able to hang along for the breakneck ride (“Amputationsdrang,” “Accelerating the Rot,” “A Patriarchy Perverse”). Oh, and those crawls, engorged and dripping with a primal passion, land often with all the calamitous force that Defeated Sanity promises.

But for all the rage and ragged riffcraft that Defeated Sanity splays about the festering crooks and scabbed-over crannies of Chronicles, their undeniable attachment to groove as an anchor remains vital to success. The guitar work across any Defeated Sanity album comes second in technicality to Gruber and longtime bassist Jacob Schmidt. But its ability to punctuate rumbling, fret-clanging pulses with a percussive treble accent (“Temporal Disintegration,” “Extrinsically Enraged”), or dance about Gruber’s best Bobby Jarzombek (Spastic Ink, Fates Warning) impressions (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”) and hellish blasts (“Amputationsdrag,” “Accelerating…”), gives Chronicles an amplified weight that it needs. Defeated Sanity’s continued mission to layer rhythm upon rhythm upon rhythm—including vocalist Josh Welshman’s poetically metered, putrid, and unintelligible spews—finds an important tether in this thoughtful technicality.

Brutal death metal at its most basic level expresses the aggression of death metal through lenses of increasing absurdity and Defeated Sanity’s continued refinement of their devious dialogues tethers with ease the listener to their every wile. Whether brief like the grinding intro of “Amputationsdrang” or extended like the techy spasm of the penultimate “Condemned to Vascular Famine,” each run on Chronicles of Lunacy comes loaded with more impressive moments than any listener could hope to remember in entirety. But the beauty in the snarling and crushing atmosphere that Defeated Sanity creates exists in its ability to switch from knuckle-scraping slam to finger-testing climb as if all were one from the beginning. Chronicles of Lunacy, as a honed interpretation of Defeated Sanity already proven métier, finds an easy spot in the upper tier of their storied catalog—and it doubles as a killer neck exercise.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist | Bandcamp
Websites: defeatedsanity.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/DefeatedSanity
Releases Worldwide: November 22nd, 2024

Maddog

Three decades in, Defeated Sanity remains just out of reach of convenient descriptors. They’re too proggy to be Cryptopsy, but far too brutal for Death; too slammy for Suffocation, but too riffy for Wormed; neither noodly enough for Origin nor grindy enough for Dying Fetus. A distinctive medley of familiar pieces, Defeated Sanity has always targeted maximum brutality, in both their caveman slam breaks and their superhuman technical flourishes. This has resulted in one of brutal death metal’s most unassailable discographies; even their most recent album The Sanguinary Impetus earned a 4.0 and a handful of list spots in 2020. Its follow-up Chronicles of Lunacy charts charted waters, but it’s a jolt of adrenaline nonetheless.

Defeated Sanity’s signatures swirl together on Chronicles of Lunacy. Despite picking up a new lead guitarist in Vaughn Stoffey (whose main cred appears to be an adjunct professorship in jazz guitar), the band’s guitarwork is as fearsome as ever. Chronicles’ most technical riffs maintain a strong sense of melody, even in their syncopated flailing. Brutal near-OSDM sections offer a respite, interspersed with bouts of slam. Defeated Sanity’s prog proclivities are tasteful but omnipresent, like the jazzy outro of “Temporal Distintegration” and the off-kilter rhythms of the opener “Amputationsdrang.” Indeed, while there are more differences than similarities, Defeated Sanity remains mandatory listening for fans of Human-era Death. Long-time bassist Jacob Schmidt holds it all together, with vivid bass lines that thump without farting.5 And as always, Lille Gruber’s drums marry the rhythmic prowess of Mike Smith (Suffocation) with the snare-heavy circus act of Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy). Every member of Defeated Sanity balances high-brow compositional wizardry with serf-friendly jams.

Even at its most unhinged, Chronicles of Lunacy is impossible to tune out. Defeated Sanity has cracked the code; the secret to musical success is to sound both interesting and thrilling. Parts of Chronicles lean one way or the other, like the mesmerizing drum patterns of “Condemned to Vascular Famine” and the shameless slam of “Accelerating the Rot.” But the album’s triumph is its ability to blur the line among its diverse strengths. Miraculously, one of its most memorable riffs is the opening of “Temporal Disintegration,” whose Wormed melody slays despite its indecipherable rhythm. Similarly, Defeated Sanity’s breakdowns use a strong sense of melody to escape slam’s typical idiocy (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”). A chunk of credit goes to Colin Marston’s production job. Marston’s talent is undisputed, but he outdoes himself with a lush guitar sound that honors both Defeated Sanity’s cutting riffs and their technical spectacles. Despite its twists and turns, Chronicles of Lunacy has lodged in my memory much more than I’d expected.

But if you blink, you might miss it. While Chronicles teeters on the edge of lunacy through much of its runtime, it sometimes steps over the edge. The album’s earlier cuts suffer the most, sometimes leaving me confused about how their chaotic pieces fit together (“The Odour of Sanctity”). More generally, when songs shapeshift so frequently, they can lose their sense of identity. For example, while “Extrinsically Enraged” blends Killing on Adrenaline and Pierced from Within riffs that each drag me in, its hectic mix of ideas makes the track less recognizable. Still, these are outliers in a record that otherwise showcases thoughtful writing. Gruber’s drum shenanigans superglue disparate sections together, as do the expertly executed fade-in melodies (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”). The closer “Heredity Violated” deserves special mention, with a climactic introduction, a skull-shattering main riff, and an ebb and flow that make it my favorite closer of 2024. Overall, Chronicles of Lunacy’s loose seams are just small holes in a tight-knit garment.

With bands like Wormed, Noxis, and Nile churning out stellar releases in 2024, brutal death metal has already given us more than we deserve. Defeated Sanity’s latest is just the cherry on top. Sanity’s Lunacy rewards patience, and its frenzied darting between technicality and brutality is a head-scratcher even after weeks of attention. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of 2024’s most endearing death metal releases.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

#2024 #40 #BrutalDeathMetal #ChroniclesOfLunacy #Cryptopsy #Death #DeathMetal #DefeatedSanity #Devourment #DyingFetus #GermanMetal #Nov24 #Origin #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #SpasticInk #Suffocation #TechnicalBrutalDeathMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #Watchtower #Wormed

Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

The scattering guitar stabbings and inertia-rupturing kick runs of Defeated Sanity’s earlier exhausting oeuvre fell blurry in early critical discussion.1 And while the brutal death loving scene at large may have found less issue with what Psalms of the Moribund up to Passages into Deformity offered in terms None So Vile-indebted,2 frenzied groove, 2016’s Disposal of the Dead // Dharmata cemented with a two-pronged approach Defeated Sanity’s tonal heaviness and technical prowess. From humble roots as a father-son project between kit commander Lille Gruber and now departed jazz journeyman Wolfgang Teske, these German slam summoners have grown alongside post-Suffocation flagbearers like the shred-snappy Dying Fetus and hammer-wielding Devourment in a manner far more rhythmically studied. Growth as a concept, though, in this genre which pursues with relentless, murderous intent the swinging arms and whipping necks of its consumers, can present in forms contradictory to its primal base of mouth-frothing riff drags.

Yet, the chase towards the limits of extremity has defined both the trajectory of brutal death metal and Defeated Sanity. In turn, 2020’s career high mark The Sanguinary Impetus expanded upon Defeated Sanity’s frenetic, gutter-tuned madness and jazzy, warm, nimble-footed stimulations through the engineering expertise of extreme metal’s greatest ally, Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts),3 allowing the impact of Defeated Sanity’s free brutality to land with frightening precision. Organic and cutting, Gruber’s kit—already a known highlight in the Defeated Sanity brand—finds dynamic tones that separate gravity-rated snare rolls from rimshot murder calls, push synth toms that evoke a Peart/Reinart bouncing homage (Rush, Cynic, respectively, particularly on the outro to “Temporal Disintegration”)4, and spread cymbal accents that kiss the edges of the soundscape to dissipate the madness. Marston’s fuller control over Chronicles manages chaos while still showcasing the depth of play that Defeated Sanity possesses.

In reaction to the preceding overdosed-on-Watchtower expedition, Chronicles stomps with its steel-toes caked in Suffocation-by-jazz-graduates fervor, serving stank, slam, and snare-drills in equal and obnoxious measure (“The Odour of Sanctity,” “Extrinsically Enraged”). None of what Chronicles has festered in the Defeated Sanity think tank plays worlds different than previous work, but its leanness and excess in detail forces repeated, engaging listens. For the unbaptized, speed-adorned, hammering snare runs break open the brutal death flood gates and reinvigorate its half-time crawls with little concern for whether the listener will be able to hang along for the breakneck ride (“Amputationsdrang,” “Accelerating the Rot,” “A Patriarchy Perverse”). Oh, and those crawls, engorged and dripping with a primal passion, land often with all the calamitous force that Defeated Sanity promises.

But for all the rage and ragged riffcraft that Defeated Sanity splays about the festering crooks and scabbed-over crannies of Chronicles, their undeniable attachment to groove as an anchor remains vital to success. The guitar work across any Defeated Sanity album comes second in technicality to Gruber and longtime bassist Jacob Schmidt. But its ability to punctuate rumbling, fret-clanging pulses with a percussive treble accent (“Temporal Disintegration,” “Extrinsically Enraged”), or dance about Gruber’s best Bobby Jarzombek (Spastic Ink, Fates Warning) impressions (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”) and hellish blasts (“Amputationsdrag,” “Accelerating…”), gives Chronicles an amplified weight that it needs. Defeated Sanity’s continued mission to layer rhythm upon rhythm upon rhythm—including vocalist Josh Welshman’s poetically metered, putrid, and unintelligible spews—finds an important tether in this thoughtful technicality.

Brutal death metal at its most basic level expresses the aggression of death metal through lenses of increasing absurdity and Defeated Sanity’s continued refinement of their devious dialogues tethers with ease the listener to their every wile. Whether brief like the grinding intro of “Amputationsdrang” or extended like the techy spasm of the penultimate “Condemned to Vascular Famine,” each run on Chronicles of Lunacy comes loaded with more impressive moments than any listener could hope to remember in entirety. But the beauty in the snarling and crushing atmosphere that Defeated Sanity creates exists in its ability to switch from knuckle-scraping slam to finger-testing climb as if all were one from the beginning. Chronicles of Lunacy, as a honed interpretation of Defeated Sanity already proven métier, finds an easy spot in the upper tier of their storied catalog—and it doubles as a killer neck exercise.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist | Bandcamp
Websites: defeatedsanity.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/DefeatedSanity
Releases Worldwide: November 22nd, 2024

Maddog

Three decades in, Defeated Sanity remains just out of reach of convenient descriptors. They’re too proggy to be Cryptopsy, but far too brutal for Death; too slammy for Suffocation, but too riffy for Wormed; neither noodly enough for Origin nor grindy enough for Dying Fetus. A distinctive medley of familiar pieces, Defeated Sanity has always targeted maximum brutality, in both their caveman slam breaks and their superhuman technical flourishes. This has resulted in one of brutal death metal’s most unassailable discographies; even their most recent album The Sanguinary Impetus earned a 4.0 and a handful of list spots in 2020. Its follow-up Chronicles of Lunacy charts charted waters, but it’s a jolt of adrenaline nonetheless.

Defeated Sanity’s signatures swirl together on Chronicles of Lunacy. Despite picking up a new lead guitarist in Vaughn Stoffey (whose main cred appears to be an adjunct professorship in jazz guitar), the band’s guitarwork is as fearsome as ever. Chronicles’ most technical riffs maintain a strong sense of melody, even in their syncopated flailing. Brutal near-OSDM sections offer a respite, interspersed with bouts of slam. Defeated Sanity’s prog proclivities are tasteful but omnipresent, like the jazzy outro of “Temporal Distintegration” and the off-kilter rhythms of the opener “Amputationsdrang.” Indeed, while there are more differences than similarities, Defeated Sanity remains mandatory listening for fans of Human-era Death. Long-time bassist Jacob Schmidt holds it all together, with vivid bass lines that thump without farting.5 And as always, Lille Gruber’s drums marry the rhythmic prowess of Mike Smith (Suffocation) with the snare-heavy circus act of Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy). Every member of Defeated Sanity balances high-brow compositional wizardry with serf-friendly jams.

Even at its most unhinged, Chronicles of Lunacy is impossible to tune out. Defeated Sanity has cracked the code; the secret to musical success is to sound both interesting and thrilling. Parts of Chronicles lean one way or the other, like the mesmerizing drum patterns of “Condemned to Vascular Famine” and the shameless slam of “Accelerating the Rot.” But the album’s triumph is its ability to blur the line among its diverse strengths. Miraculously, one of its most memorable riffs is the opening of “Temporal Disintegration,” whose Wormed melody slays despite its indecipherable rhythm. Similarly, Defeated Sanity’s breakdowns use a strong sense of melody to escape slam’s typical idiocy (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”). A chunk of credit goes to Colin Marston’s production job. Marston’s talent is undisputed, but he outdoes himself with a lush guitar sound that honors both Defeated Sanity’s cutting riffs and their technical spectacles. Despite its twists and turns, Chronicles of Lunacy has lodged in my memory much more than I’d expected.

But if you blink, you might miss it. While Chronicles teeters on the edge of lunacy through much of its runtime, it sometimes steps over the edge. The album’s earlier cuts suffer the most, sometimes leaving me confused about how their chaotic pieces fit together (“The Odour of Sanctity”). More generally, when songs shapeshift so frequently, they can lose their sense of identity. For example, while “Extrinsically Enraged” blends Killing on Adrenaline and Pierced from Within riffs that each drag me in, its hectic mix of ideas makes the track less recognizable. Still, these are outliers in a record that otherwise showcases thoughtful writing. Gruber’s drum shenanigans superglue disparate sections together, as do the expertly executed fade-in melodies (“Condemned to Vascular Famine”). The closer “Heredity Violated” deserves special mention, with a climactic introduction, a skull-shattering main riff, and an ebb and flow that make it my favorite closer of 2024. Overall, Chronicles of Lunacy’s loose seams are just small holes in a tight-knit garment.

With bands like Wormed, Noxis, and Nile churning out stellar releases in 2024, brutal death metal has already given us more than we deserve. Defeated Sanity’s latest is just the cherry on top. Sanity’s Lunacy rewards patience, and its frenzied darting between technicality and brutality is a head-scratcher even after weeks of attention. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of 2024’s most endearing death metal releases.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

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