Defeated Sanity - Passages Into Deformity
Is it just me, or do Death Metal vocalists seem to change more often than the price of gas? Sure, your upper-echelon types such as Suffocation, Vader, Obituary, Unleashed, Cianide, etc. have less difficulty maintaining that same iconic frontman (although, even heavyweight hitters like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Sinister, and Bolt Thrower have had a few shuffles behind the mic), but when it comes to the “ultra-brutal” market? Forget about it. New guy every album. No continuity whatsoever. Why the bitch fit? I’m just a little pissed about A.J. Magana not doing the vocals for Defeated Sanity anymore, that’s all. Chapters of Repugnance was my absolute favorite brutal Death record of 2010, and his inhumanly guttural belch was one of the major contributing factors. Mind you, new gurgler Konstantin Luhring is pretty fucking brutal… he just isn’t ex-Disgorge brutal. (I know, who is, right?) In his defense, he isn’t the only reason Passages Into Deformity fails to live up to its mighty predecessor. The production is significantly weaker. The guitars and bass don’t sound quite as feel-it-in-your-bones heavy, and the recording of the drums is especially suspect. It seems they’ve opted for a rawer vibe and, while certainly not terrible, it’s just not as good. Musically the band still slay on all cylinders. They can give anyone a run for their money in the Tech department —specifically bassist Jacob Schmidt, who pulls off the blibbity-blooblies on a near-Websterian level— and when they decide to go all-pit-no-shit… well, let’s just say I hope you left your glasses in the car. These guys aren’t really memorable in the traditional Lionel Ritchie or Dismember sense; you remember their brutiful pummel more like you remember the SUV that ran over you — from your coma. Alas, minus Magana, it does not seem like the SUV was going as fast.
Favorites: “Naraka,” “Verblendung” (featuring guest vocals from the sorely missed Frank Rini), “The Purging,” and “Martyrium” (featuring guest vocals from the sorely missed A.J. Magana… just to be dicks I guess).
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