Before there was Sepultura, there was Slayer. Before there was Slayer, well, there was nothing. Slayer brought the blood, and it fucking poured crimson buckets the world over. Prior to Slayer, and long before death metal, the genre was kinda tame, with themes about as extreme as your sister's Menudo tape collection (you'll get this reference if you are over thirty).
If your remember this, then you are certainly old enough to recall Dee Snider's battle with Tipper Gore and the The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). This group of five sexually-repressed woman came armed with the stated goal of increasing parental control over the access of music deemed to have violent, drug-related or sexual themes (hence that oh so sought after Parental Advisory sticker!). In hindsight, it's funny how incredibly innocent this era of metal actually was, considering the fact that, just a few short years later, the over-the-top imagery and lyrics of bands like Cannibal Corpse and Death were the rule of the day. I've gotta say, without either Cannibal or Death, would slam metal, as we know it today, even exist?
In the spirit of the two aforementioned trailblazing bands, Dank Slams brings you the mighty Defeated Sanity. This German four-piece have been slammin longer than your dad's been slammin your sweet aunt Betsy, which is 1996 to be exact (kinda fucked you found this out here at Dank Slams, eh?). Anyway, the guys have just dropped a brand new album, entitled Disposal of the Dead / Dharmata, which pays homage to their roots bloody roots… let's check it out!
DEFEATED SANITY – DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD / DHARMATA
So, this is an interesting release (previously reviewed by Metal Injection here). What we have here is an album's worth of material presented as two separate EPs – essentially a split with themselves. The first side, Disposal Of The Dead, is what you might come to expect from Defeated Sanity – brutal slamming death metal. The second side, Dharmata, is an ode to all things Floridian death metal. You would be forgiven if you mistook this side as having arrived straight outta the late 80s/early 90s, as it's packed to the gills with Death, Cynic-loving metal-meets-jazz fusion. For the purposes of this column, though, we'll stick with the slams. Which brings us back to Disposal Of The Dead. Comprising of six tracks, this thing runs the gamut of early Suffocation and Incantation, right through to Defeated Sanity's jaw-dropping work on their 2010 album, Chapters Of Repugnance (which, to this scribe, is the best example of brutal death/slam in the past decade). The slams are aplenty, complimented by an eerie, psychosis-inducing jazz-like quality. It's a jarring mix at first, but one that makes complete sense after a few listens. The gurgles of ex-vocalist Konstantin Lühring are a reminder that crickets and frogs can be eaten by fucking beasts!
Let's compare tracks, see how far the band has come, and perhaps get some insight into where they might go next. The first track is a new one, from Disposal Of The Dead, entitled "Into The Soil", followed by the self-titled track from their highly acclaimed Chapters Of Repugnance album.
Take a listen, and tell us what you think – Defeated Sanity of yore, or the Defeated Sanity of the here-and-now?
