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Defacing are a brutal death metal band, and consequently there is plenty of brutal percussion and vocals to be found from beginning to end. This sort of sound should be familiar to anyone who has heard any number of bands from Suffocation through to Severed Savior, Deeds of Flesh, and so on and so on. The link with Suffocation is particularly evident, as there are various points where the distinctive groove break downs made commonplace by them are used, and these are mostly pulled off quite well, despite the questionable originality given that this approach can be found on all of Suffocation’s releases. Apart from the occasional groovy riffs though, the bulk of the guitar work is the characteristic brutal riffage of the genre, and these combine quite well with the style of the drums – ultra fast blast beats with plenty of prominent snare and bass drums. However, I did sometimes feel the riffs got a bit repetitive and generic, as there are a lot of bands creating this same style. I suppose I was looking for something that brought it above the typical conventions of the genre, because although most of the album is brutal death at a competent standard – doubtless the band’s main objective anyway – I was interested in things that expanded the boundaries of a style that is already very heavily populated with unspectacular bands.
Judging this purely as it is though, it is an impressive and enjoyable slab of brutality. There is a bit of variety in the drums despite the obvious preference for hyper-speed blasting, and despite the point about repetitiveness there are nonetheless some well written guitar passages, and everything is delivered with very polished precision which is commendable in itself given the intensity of the sound. The band obviously have a sense of humour as well, with one band member called Claudio Popeye Sea Wolf and track titles such as “Curse of the Deformed Fetus”! All of the tracks are of a fairly consistent standard, although this isn’t necessarily all positive because it does mean the songs seem to have limited definition and memorability. The vocals are suitably brutal, although I find them a bit incoherent in places. It’s obviously part of the style that the lyrics are quite indecipherable and the growls and roars go to extremes of distortion, but I still prefer there to be some sort of unity with the rest of the instruments – in places here there seems to be no rhythm or structure to the stream of vocals, but I suppose that’s just an acquired taste. A band like Suffocation don’t have the same problem though, and still manage to have brutal vocals which complement the songs rather than make them messy and distract from the riffs. I did feel at times that opportunities for good riffs were lost or buried by the drums and vocals, and sometimes the guitars are a bit distant.
Overall though, this album is a solid barrage of brutality and competent musicianship. Influences such as Cryptopsy are obvious, and this is confirmed with the cover of their song ‘Phobophile’ at the end. While a nicely done cover though, this serves to remind me of how brutal death can be done with more structure and variety, which I feel is the main downfall of Spitting Savagery, and it is hard to highlight things that stand it out from the rest of the brutal death genre.
| Tracklist |
| 1. (Into The Vile) Mutating Inside The Degeneracy |
| 2. Flagellated By Insanity |
| 3. Spitting Savagery |
| 4. Masochist Extermination Of Subhuman Innocence |
| 5. Endorsement Of The Eternity |
| 6. Captive In Agony |
| 7. Enjoy The Suffering |
| 8. Curse Of The Deformed |
| 9. Phobophile (Cryptopsy cover) |
: 31.09
| Buy other Defacing albums |
