Germany’s Defeated Sanity return with their sixth album and the full album is in their brutal death metal style. Their 2016 album was split into 2 sections. One part brutal Defeated Sanity and the other half progressive, jazz infused technical death metal. It was an original concept and continued to show Defeated Sanity evolving into one of the more interesting and better death metal bands out there.

Josh Welshman is their new vocalist and if you enjoyed Defeated Sanity’s past brutal guttural vocalists then you will no doubt like Josh’s style. Lille Gruber-the band’s brainchild blasts away on drums and plays guitar, while Jacob Schmidt plays the bass guitar out of his mind.

9 songs in 33 minutes and “Phytodigestion” starts off the album, and I was recently telling Lille, the opening drum beat I was like what on earth is happening here? Simple snare hit until Lille does some monster drum rolls and the music slowly erupts into a pit-inducing, seizure-filled slam, then right into a blast beat and then back into the sludgy heavy breakdown that Defeated Sanity has trademarked, all the while Josh is putrefying us with his guttural vocals. Nice little guitar solo ditty, back to the heavy sludgy death metal, then more blasts and the mid-paced parts that alternate between this pace and blasts is on point.

“Conceived Through Savagery” starts with almost a vintage Cannibal Corpse-Barnes era mid-paced speed, before more blasting erupts and some intricate guitar work. Not melodic, but not devoid of melody either. Isolated guitar riff, then the drums coming in and right into a blast is the proverbial Holy Shit moment. More sludgy heaviness and Josh letting out a rather nice growl that knocked your ham sandwich right outta your mouth. The blast beats are super tight and Lille continues to show his technical prowess while Jacob’s bass guitar, as always, is prominent in the mix-as well as it should. He is one of the finest bass strummers in all of brutal death metal-in my top 5 for sure.

“Drivelling Putrefaction” is a longer than usual song for Defeated Sanity at over 6 minutes the slow burn of the music eventually gets louder and some excellent 90’s era pinch harmonics slicing and dicing all over the place. Right into the blast with a ripping guitar riff and bass plucking knocking your animals all over the room in a swirling display of tornado madness. The sludgy breakdown returns and again is so damn heavy you may mess your pants. Some creative drumming with cymbals and then the slowdown is more of the technical side of things, which Defeated Sanity have continued to incorporate on each release. Intricate and almost poly-rhythmic in nature, before the slow down then into the blast. Very cool part as the guitar is picking slowly over the blast beats-very catchy and not something you hear all the time in brutal death metal. Some guitar solos erupt and then back to the heavy break and then even slower. At this part you’d better be ripping up the floorboards.

The Sanguinary Impetus is an excellent Defeated Sanity album. The production is a tad rawer/lower than past releases, but the overall production is still very good. The mix is fantastic as it captures all the intricate technicality and heaviness of the band. They no doubt have crafted this sound over the years and no one does sludgy, bottom-end heaviness quite like Defeated Sanity. The red album cover showing the monkey morphing ties in with the lyrical concept of the album-so read those lyrics. There are lots of various packages on Willowtip Records to choose from and get one for your self and maybe your mother too. If you have not liked their FB page then do so immediately because Defeated Sanity continue onward showing the death metal community that they are leaders and not followers. Buy or Burn in Hell!

[Visit the band's website]

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