Taking more than a huge nod from Suffocation as well as the likes of Devourment, Decrepit Birth, Gorgasm and other more brutal, technical US death metal bands, Germany’s Defeated Sanity have delivered a second album of appropriately sick and gore filled technical brutality (brootek death metal?).

With ultra deep, almost grindcore core styled burps layered over complex yet savage riffs, Defeated Sanity, unlike some of their US peers, do manage to throw in some nice grooves and lurches amid the blasting carnage (i.e. “Hideously Disembodied”, Butchered Identity”), hence the Suffocation and Devourment comparisons, but otherwise, Psalms of the Moribund is a pretty breakneck assault of squealing, pinch harmonics and ravenous blast beats (“Engorged With Humiliation”, “Arousal Through Punishment”, “Artifacts of Punishment”). It’s not going to change death metal as it isn’t a true ‘technical’ death metal album per say, and the vocals are utterly monotone, but as far as mixing earthy slabs of groove with a more complex voracity, much like country mates Despondency, Defeated Sanity have the balance just right.

Production wise, things are decent, not great and there’s a primal, early 90’s muddiness to the guitar tone, but the drums are a bit ‘clicky’ (not nearly as bad as say, Disavowed ) so the two colliding makes for a unstable overall sound, but otherwise, based on the music alone, Psalms of the Moribund is a solid entry into the genre that should satiate most fans of deviant death metal.

[Visit the band's website]

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