FMA Reviews: Defeated Sanity: Passages Into Deformity

Originally reviewed here.

This year is shaping up to be a decent one for brutal death/slam death metal. Devourment and Katalepsy both have new albums this year, but there are two that I am looking forward to above all others. Defeated Sanity and Wormed.

Defeated Sanity's last album was an incredibly interesting take on slam death metal by incorporating a lot of technical and progressive death metal elements. It ranks as one of my favorite slam death metal albums of all time. That has typically been the case with Defeated Sanity. They are difficult to pigeonhole into one genre because they frequently mix things up a little bit in their compositions. That all continues on this release. Defeated Sanity has once again proven that they are one of the better bands going in the vast brutal death metal genre.

This album marks the debut for new vocalist Konstantin Luhring. His vocals are fairly typical for the style, very deep and guttural, with the occasional gurgling roar and higher-pitched shriek. As is typical for Defeated Sanity, one of the most interesting members to listen to is bassist Jacob Schmidt, who brings a technical mastery to the instrument that is exceedingly rare in brutal death metal. The band acknowledges this by having the bass high in the mix and giving him occasional moments to shine through. The drumming is another often-overlooked instrument for which Defeated Sanity seems to be blessed with an incredibly talented musician.

Defeated Sanity bring an impressive amount of musicianship to a genre that is often bereft of this level of talent. And that is coming from someone who generally enjoys slam death metal and brutal death metal. There is just something about what Defeated Sanity brings to the table that is sadly lacking from a lot of other bands in the genre. There is technicality there, but the band uses that technicality to accentuate their brutality, rather than as a means to garner attention. There is brutality, but the band does not try to out-pummel other brutal death and slam death metal bands. They do not try to show off, they just come out and play. That is what makes Defeated Sanity unique. That is what makes Defeated Sanity so damn good.

FMA Reviews: Malignancy: Eugenics

Originally reviewed here.

Malignancy has been around for a long time, forming in the early 1990's, but despite hearing of the band several times, for some reason I had just never gotten around to checking them out. Until now that is. Malignancy formed out of the same area of the country and in the same general time frame as Immolation and Mortician. But other than playing death metal, they really do not have a lot of similarity to them. Malignancy is far more technical than their more straightforward death metal peers.

The music on this release is hyperactive, technical, and bizarre. Malignancy is a brutal death metal band that utilizes a lot of very technical riffs and sweeps throughout their songs. But there is just something off-kilter about their brand of technical brutal death metal. The whole thing feels off somehow. Malignancy does not really follow a lot of the cliches and expected ideas that a lot of technical death metal bands do. Though their style is definitely technical, something about them just does not fit in with groups like Necrophagist, Obscura, or any other bands. I am not sure how to explain it really, something is just different about Malignancy.

I suppose for one thing, Malignancy does not write terribly long songs. The longest song on this release is less than five minutes long and most of them do not even touch four minutes. This means that the band does not thrown riff after riff and sweep after sweep for an interminable period. Each song will end, and fairly quickly.

Another unusual aspect is the attention to the rhythm section. The drums and bass really steal the show on this release. The beat and rhythms are constantly evolving and changing throughout the release. It never feels calm and complacent. The whole thing is fairly unsettling and makes this a difficult album to listen to as background music. It simply demands attention.

Unfortunately, after the album is over, it is hard to pick out highlights. Nothing really stays fresh in the mind. That is often a problem for technical death metal, and it shows through here as well. The vocals are also a tad on the boring side as they do not tend to change much throughout the album. But while listening, this is certainly an interesting release. Perhaps it will be a grower.