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Welcome To Unbound Zine |
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| Album Review |
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Defeated Sanity-Psalms of the Moribund
(Grindethic Records, 2008)
There is no denying that Defeated Sanity are as brutal as it comes for death metal, but if you really dig into the bands sound on this album you'll be treated to some very unique rhythmic ideas for this style of music. The guttural roars and rapid fire guitar work are somewhat standard for the genre, but they are still powerful here none the less. The band could almost be seen as a cross between Tomb of the Mutilated era Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation with a somewhat jazzy feel coming through at times throughout the album.
This German band packs a lot of riffs into a song but surprisingly the band toys with rhythmic riffs a great deal and the blasting rarely becomes monotonous. The drummer has a knack for even spicing the blast beats up as well either with a unique cymbal pattern or just by using interesting pauses during the beat. With the ridiculous riffs the guitarist throws at the drummer it is definitely commendable that not only can he keep up but he throws fresh ideas into the music as well. There are quite a few moments on the album that have drumming unlike anything you have heard on a death metal album before. I hate to say that musically without this drummer this would have been slightly average, but that might have been the case. We've all heard guttural vocals, and rhythmic pinch harmonic filled death metal before and the drum performance helps to raise this above being just another death metal band. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the guitar approach of the band. There are some truly cool riffs on display here and some of the rhythmic riffs are downright crushing.
While I have no problem with the production, I'd definitely like to hear the band with a bit more clarity. This is the type of band that would really benefit would a beefy production with a lot of punch and the production on this album is just a bit muddy. That said I still have little trouble getting into this album and enjoying all of the intricacies of the bands sound. This is definitely an album that you will want to listen to quite a few times to pick up all of the little details and drum techniques that are quite different that what you normally would expect from the genre. Defeated Sanity at first might seem like they play a fairly standard style of brutal death metal, but after a few listens it'll all start to make more sense.
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UN: Psalms of the Moribund marks the bands second full length album. Did you guys approach this album any differently than Prelude to the Tragedy? Was there anything you consciously wanted to do anything differently with this album?
Lille: Well, we went into the recordings with much more experience and a couple of songs in more or less the same style and a unified concept! Prelude was more of a collection of the best songs of the previous 7 years, just to put out an album.
For Psalms we wanted to record with a much more raw approach, that's why we decided to record most of the tracks live together in the studio. On the first album we did some songs in 12 takes and stuff like that.
UN: Psalms also marks the debut of Jens as the new vocalist of the band. Do you feel like he brings a lot to the band vocally? He has one hell of a powerful growl!
Lille: Thank you! He made a big part of why people considered us an extremely guttural band, while we were just a technical old school band before in the people's eyes. We were planning on vocals like that even before we recorded Prelude though.
UN: While in the studio is it hard to get a balance between heaviness and clarity? Obviously with a band of this nature you want to be heavy, but not to the point of just sounding like noise.
Lille: Yeah we have been dealing with this question for ages now. It is really hard to get the perfect middle way. We definitely think heaviness is more important though. We are working hard on our jobs so we can hopefully afford to get better equipment soon to make the sound better.
UN: How long would you say it takes on average to put together a Defeated Sanity song? There are quite a few parts in each song and there is also definitely a technical feel as well. Does it take a fair amount of time to get everything together and tightened up?
Lille: Yeah the song that we just finished right now (instrumentally), I remember beginning to develop the main theme for it 1 year ago. We don't take anything else than the best parts to complete a song. I think to get a song finished we try about 600 riffs/licks/drumbeats/vocal patterns before we actually decide on the final version. Some times you get lucky though, and you can set up a song in about 2 month or even less.
UN: The drumming definitely stands out to my ears. Not only is the performance extremely fast, there are a lot of unique elements that surface throughout the album. A jazz style is used quite a bit. Would you agree that you guys have a unique style of drumming for this genre? Would you consider that an important part of the bands sound?
Lille: Thank you man! I try to use drum beats that I haven't heard before at all or at least not in Death Metal. As we create for our guitar parts we also create drum parts. There is even a certain blast beat that I use, which I never heard someone else play.
UN: Judging from the artwork used and the song titles one might assume that the lyrics are typical gore lyrics, but in fact there seems to be much more thought put into them. Is it important to have lyrics that arent entirely typical of the genre?
Lille:We try to bring our absolute hatred against the society into our lyrics without making them seem "hardcore/grindcorish". They are all dark and brutal lyrics but they contain our philosophy as well.
Hmmm I like "typical" lyrics in Death Metal, they just have to be well written, but I guess just as our music is a little different our lyrics are as well.
UN: Also recently released was a three song promo. I was curious to ask what prompted the band to bring out another release so quickly after the Psalms album. How has the response to the promo been so far?
Lille:We wanted to prove that we are a band that is gonna stay here for longer and not disappearing as a 2 album project. We are good and relatively fast songwriters and we wanted to prove that. The response has been pretty enthusiastic, as far as I know; no one that loved Psalms dislikes the new material.
UN: Quite soon you will be embarking on a fairly lengthy tour of the US. Will this be the bands first time coming to the US? Are you guys looking forward to the Maryland Deathfest?
Lille:This tour was amazing!! Maryland may have been the biggest crowd we had so far. Yes this was our first time and we wanna do it again!
UN: Would you agree that Defeated Sanity has a very US based sound? Have you guys always been more into the American style of death metal? The European side of the genre tends to be a bit more melodic and more thrash influenced I would say. What are some of your favorite US bands?
Lille:I never liked the European sound too much! Blues and Rock Music was developed in the US, that means it all goes back to this country. The roots are there and I think the best musicians will always be there. Some of my favorites right now are HEINOUS KILLINGS, DIVARICATE and GUTROT (RIP).
UN: You guys have been with Grindethic for a few albums now. Are you guys pleased with the amount of work they have put into the band? Im sure without their support a tour like your upcoming US tour would have been much harder to put together. Will you guys be working with them for the next album?
Lille:Grindethic did very good work for us and they helped set up and finance this US tour as well. We don't know which label will be releasing our next album yet, but Grindethic is still on top of our list.
UN: What are the bands touring plans for the rest of the summer after the US tour? Will the band be playing some of the other festivals throughout Europe?
Lille:I don't think there will be too much summer festivals this year for us, maybe one or two. I think the main thing now is going through member changes and composing a new piece of brutality. We just finished song 5 and there is ideas for 2 further songs so we will be ready soon.
UN: Like I mentioned earlier you released a three song promo not that long ago, when can we expect a new full length album from the band? Has the band been writing a lot of new material or have you mainly been rehearsing for the upcoming tours?
Lille:See question above! I am confident, that 2009 will be the time for the next record.
UN: The band has been together since 1994 which is quite commendable. Has it been tough to keep the band together for this long? Have you faced a lot of roadblocks over the years or has it been relatively smooth sailing?
Lille:I would say, everything went pretty smoothly although there is always tough times. 1994 is not really the time where we formed, but more the time when me and Wolfgang started jamming together. I would say the real beginning was 1998/1999.
Official Defeated Sanity Myspace
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