Defeated Sanity : "Disposal Of The Dead // Dharmata"

The lower than guttural growl, gives this German band more of a Cannibal Corpse feel to this album that is split into two parts. As with other expeditions into this more crudely brutal style of death metal, the snare sound under produced and over the guitar which sit more in the background, so like early Cannibal Corpse it's the sub-guttural gurgle of the vocals and the pop of the tinny snare that dominate the mix. The songs on this section of the album are compressed into three minutes bursts of your typical nineties death metal. This is death metal at it's most one dimensional here. I have a hard time with the blast beaten snare patterns on "Suttee" and reaffirms to me that blast beats work best in black metal. There is more groove and nuance to "the Bell" which touches on what I do like from this era of death metal, even though it reverts back into the blasting.

The second part of this bi-polar album finds the band in their manic stage indulging in a more grandiose proggy form of death metal with Max Phelps from Cynic lending his voice. The growls here are higher more like later period Death or Sepultura in some places. The only draw back is even with all it's technical twists and turns it seems like "At One With Wrath' is an extension of the previous song. There is a palm muted prog groove that I really like. "The Quest for Non- Existence" is pretty adventurous with the rubbery bass lines leading the way. By the time we get into the last minute of chaos that "Quest for Non-Existence" holds it's clear this band is not as skilled as Zappa's in putting this kind of thing together, but that is a bar held up only for the most elite, so they come close to fulfilling their ambitions.

They continue to boldly race through the labyrynth of wild riffs and time signatures on the closing "Return to Samsara". If you like prog metal or tech death then this half of the album is without a doubt worth your time. The more Death like tendencies give this song it's own individual thought patterns often leaning into a more Zappa like jazz. The guitar really steps up to shine here and the solos on this song are impressive.I'll give this album an 8.5 because it succedes at capturing the varied faces of death metal that it sets out to pay tribute to and show themselves prefcient at both. Is this the most original effort , well yes and no. Yes in the sense that they choose to cover polar ends of the spectrum, and No in that this is done is a pretty safe and familar manner. If you are just getting into death metal this might not phase you and no matter what side of the coin you fall on here this album is worth taking note of.