DEFEATED SANITY
Passages Into Deformity

February 2013
Released: 2013, Willowtip Records
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Peter Atkinson

Germany's Defeated Sanity have been around for nearly 20 years now, yet remain firmly rooted in the primal, grind-choke-and-puke death metal of back in the day. While there is a smattering of contemporary technical flair, mostly via Jacob Schmidt's nimble-fingered bass runs, the quartet's fourth album has the sound and feel of something out of Cannibal Corpse's Chris Barnes/Scott Burns era a la Tomb of the Mutilated or The Bleeding.



From the gruesome sound effects, clanging drums, smothering mix and new singer Konstantin Luring's gurgling, vomitous vocals, Passages Into Deformity keeps it old school all the way. Not that that's a bad thing. Passages is unapologetically brutal and ugly. There's no lipstick on this pig at all. The riffs churn and burn while band leader/drummer Lille Gruber gleefully flails away and Luring coughs up a lung. End of story. And the somewhat crude production value here has a certain charm – especially given how clinical and sterile so much modern death metal sounds.



But without much in the way of truly memorable hooks – and no real melody whatsoever – there's an air of tunelessness that pervades Passages to its detriment. The unbridled savagery of “Initiation,” “Frenzy” or “Verses of Deformity” might have had more impact if there was a little more to grab onto. The splash of majesty on the closing track “Martyrium” gives it an epic feel that is a bit more like it. So perhaps a touch of “lipstick” wouldn't have been such a bad idea.