Defiled – Towards Inevitable Ruin (Season of Mist)
Wednesday, 6th July 2016
“Brickwalled,” the term often used in correlation with production jobs that are all about winning the loudness war, certainly doesn’t apply with Defiled’s fifth album, Towards Inevitable Ruin. The Japanese grinders have employed a low-level, mix-buried guitar tone that runs against the stream/current of everything we presently know about modern-day production. Perhaps it’s a grind thing, or, Defiled are smarter than the average band, as the album is pleasing to the ears in purely a sonic fashion. It also helps Towards Inevitable Ruin maintains a spartan level of brutality and energy throughout.
The guitar team of Yusuke Sumita and Shinichiro Hamada deserve the lion’s share of credit for making Towards Inevitable Ruin pop. Their slippery guitar tone is augmented by quick, burst-happy riffs, many of which spill into death metal territory, like on “Doomsday,” or the Brutal Truth-inspired “One World,” which not only scrapes off the BT barnacle, it also veers into sub-thrash territory before returning its normal, flaying angle. And what you’ll get more than anything is the reminder of the blast technique of Keisuke Hamada, who doesn’t go for the standard 8 or 12-bar blasts, but rather does them in short, furious bursts. It’s like he wants to get going, realizes he doesn’t, then replaces the blasts with a quick tom roll Simply brilliant.
Because Towards Inevitable Ruin is so many things the current modern metal scene (or even grindcore) is not, it’s a winner. Score this one for the human element; occasional sloppiness, odd ideas when it comes to drumming, and songs that are brutal as they are effective. Defiled, you are an odd duck.
