Brutal death metal. I suppose it makes a lot more sense, stylistically, than melodic death metal does. I’m a so/so fan of the genre, to be honest, being more of an old school death metal kind of guy for the most part, I suspect in no small measure because I’m pretty old myself these days. That being said, this is the second time I’ve come across Japan’s Defiled, having reviewed their “In Crisis” album for a long-defunct blog. I can remember being quite fond of it, and therefore it was a pleasant surprise to find the ever-loving editor giving me this to review.
Wow.
Look, usually I reserve the “production” paragraph until the end of the review, but I’m going to put this up front. The production is absolutely horrible. It’s bafflingly poor, a kind of throw back to the thin sound that used to be reserved for bands taping their demos directly from a tape recorder while playing live in the garage. Whether by design or not, the horrible production robs the guitar of any kind of weight or heft, coming off like the sort of rubbish that a 1980s hardcore punk band would have passed off as “amateurish” back in the day. The drums, while clearly very competently played, are smashed of all power by a tinny, tinder-dry sound that makes the “St. Anger” drum tone something to be desired.
I don’t know. Maybe Defiled are trying to go for an atmosphere with the production. Perhaps they’re going for the demo sound? I don’t know much other than I absolutely detest it.
In terms of the actual music? Well, this is a very stripped down version of Defiled, and less brutal and more, well, interesting than many of their peers. The tragedy of the whole thing is that I really, really liked the song writing here. It has some dizzying, almost Voivodian riffing going on, and a stripped-back punky edge that’s pretty compelling, making the death metal attack really very interesting in composition. The problem is that the production is so awful that it becomes impossible to listen to it for any length of time. There are clearly some really interesting ideas to be explored here, but I have to confess that I have had to endure this in three to four song bursts, before having to switch it off. I’ve tried all sorts; playing on the car stereo, listening through headphones and via the home hi-fi set up. It sounds awful on all of them.
Chaps – please don’t take this to heart. I’d love to hear this album, but I can’t listen to it because the producer clearly lost the plot big time when it came to this record. If you ever re-record it (and I hope very much that you do), I’ll give it another crack, but as it is – I’m out.
(2/10 Chris Davison)
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