Defeated Sanity (GER) - Passages Into Deformity (2013)

Country: Germany
Released on: Willowtip Records

Tracklist:

1. Initiation 01:15
2. Naraka 05:07
3. Verblendung 04:45
4. Lusting for Transcendence 03:06
5. The Purging 04:59
6. Verses of Deformity 04:17
7. Perspectives 06:49
8. Frenzy 02:36
9. Martyrium 04:50
37:44

I was absolutely stoked to be able to listen to the follow up to what for me is one of the best Brutal Death albums ever written: Chapters of Repugnance. I am not a person who cares to wait till my own CD arrives; I’ll pre-listen to shared digitals anyway. It was clear to me that living up to my extremely high expectations wouldn’t be easy for Defeated Sanity.

To be absolutely frank, this album is just grand. It’s January and I am almost certain that there will be no other release this year that can top Passages Into Deformity for me. Lühring’s vocals fit perfectly into the sound of Defeated Sanity; he has adapted a style quite different to the one he used to have on Despondency. It’s not ultra guttural which has also been what I adored on Chapters of Repugnance with Magana It’s his deep forced Death Metal vocals with a lot of variety. Great performance, we need more of that in BDM, not more gurgle, blubber vocals. The instruments are performed on a level of skill and musical brilliance that just offers unequaled opportunities. The riffs dark, crushing, playful, jazzy, slammy, massive and just dripping with brutality and creativity. The bass lines are chunky, perfectly audible which is brilliant and just awesome in their complexity. Gruber plays the drums with a natural esprit to it and with a brilliant sound that is raw and absolutely brutal and perfect in recording quality at the same time. Just beautiful. The music as a whole is just so dynamic, brutal and creative, alternating paces, fast, slow, old school slamming at times, adding an intensity and heaviness to the music that is just great. The song writing is just a celebration of everything that makes BDM great. That’s all I can say.
Now to some very important aspect about Defeated Sanity that is almost unique in the world of BDM for me. A pity actually.
Defeated Sanity is more than just music, it is more than just Death Metal. It is art. It is the depth of the music together with the artwork of the album and the lyrics. The brilliance in it, the thick atmosphere of absolute isolation and darkness you can almost touch, the impression of utter suffering, both fascinating and absolute. It is the elegance of a scalpel instead of the rawness of a bat. It is not the rude brutality that other bands achieve. It is pure violence.

I don’t know what more I can say. Did Passages Into Deformity live up to my expectations? Yes, surprisingly it did, although it seemed almost impossible. Did it top Chapters of Repugnance? I can’t say. They are different, but both perfect in their way. If I had to choose, Chapters of Repugnance would be one percent ahead of Passages Into Deformity. Defeated Sanity are back. They are still the uncrowned kings of the whole genre of BDM. Letting even other brilliant bands far behind, letting all the unimaginative and childlike slam only BDM bands far far behind, Defeated Sanity once again reach yet another peak in the musical landscape.

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