Sanguisugabogg – Tortured Whole
March 26th, 2021
Death Metal
Century Media Records
Columbus, Ohio, USA
Sanguisugabogg are a band who piqued my interest last year with the release of their debut EP, Pornographic Seizures, which reached into the glut of old school death metal from the 80’s and 90’s as well as the modern resurgence of OSDM bands that has occurred in the past few years, and utterly mulched what those bands had to offer into a disgusting pulp of human blood, shit, piss and cum. It was vile and disgusting and got its point across in just under 15 minutes. It made me excited for what the band would offer in the future, and luckily they did not disappoint. Pornographic Seizures was just a mere taste of the vile putridity that Sanguisugabogg would bring on their first full length album, Tortured Whole.
With song titles like “Menstrual Envy”, “Dead as Shit”, and “Felching Filth”, it should come as no surprise that this queasy quartet from Columbus, Ohio tune things down to inhuman depths and try to evoke the sound of a sewer system backing up through a toilet in an old folks home. The way that the guitars, played by sole axeman and band namesake Cameron Boggs, mix with the thick bass riffs and double bass onslaught, both of which are performed by Cody Davidson (before the band brought on Ced Davis to take on the bass role), is just utterly filthy. But when you combine the riffs and drums with the vomit-inducing toilet bowl gurgles of frontman Devin Swank, you get a recipe for sonic nausea that rivals most of what the modern death metal world has to offer, with the exception of Pissgrave of course. I don’t think anyone could out-gross the mighty Pissgrave.
Notice that I use the phrase “modern death metal”, though. The reason I say this is because in my opinion this band draws a lot from the world of slam death metal, but slam is almost a different genre unto itself. Stylistically it obviously traces its origins back to old school death metal, but slam has since morphed into a unique beast altogether. Sanguisugabogg takes a lot from the world of slam, that can’t be denied. But they manage to keep one foot firmly planted in the realm of OSDM, obviously drawing influence from older bands like Obituary and Morbid Angel, both of which really laid the framework for the current New Wave of OSDM revival movement that we’re currently living in. For that reason Sanguisugabogg manage to keep themselves from teetering over that edge into the septic tank of slam bands who all more or less sound the same.
Ultimately I think Sanguisugabogg have really carved out a sound for themselves in the current pantheon of NWOSDM bands. While Blood Incantation may engage in much more progressive and atmospheric tendencies and Undeath may be much more vicious and cutting in their sawblade-sharp riffage, Sanguisugabogg fit perfectly into the niche of slower, heavier, more disgusting death metal that, up until now, hadn’t really been filled. The band isn’t really doing anything new or special in the world of death metal, but I think that what they’re offering is something a lot of death metal fans are here for, and that’s simple, heavy, meat and potatoes riffage that kicks fucking ass from beginning to end, and makes you want to grip those invisible oranges so hard that you squirt juices all over yourself.
Of course the band doesn’t just offer death metal from beginning to end on this record. There are a few moments of experimentation or added ambiance used to break up the crushingly heavy slaughterfest that is the majority of the songs on this record. “Pornographic”, which hearkens back to the band’s debut EP, is a rather catchy and memorable synthesizer piece that conjures memories of groups like Goblin, who are famous for having scored an innumerable amount of old school Italian Giallo horror films. The same could also be said of the appropriately titled “Interlube”, which seems to draw more on the wave of synthwave acts that were popular in the late 2010’s such as Perturbator and Carpenter Brut, and prepares the listener for the final four tracks of death metal devilishness that are to come after.
Again, while Sanguisugabogg aren’t exactly doing anything new on this record, I think that their down and dirty approach to death metal that draws heavy influence from the world of slam is what makes them worth listening to in comparison to the other bands in the NWOSDM scene right now. These guys have a much more massive and sledgehammer-heavy sound when compared to groups like Frozen Soul and Creeping Death, and for that reason I would absolutely recommend listening to this album. While I’m taking away points for originality, it’s also not something I can really condemn the band for. They’re not trying to be anything other than a punishingly heavy modern death metal band, and there will be plenty of metalheads out there happy to support this kind of stripped back approach to the genre.
Final Verdict: 7/10
Good
Favourite Tracks:
“Menstrual Envy”
“Dead as Shit”
“Urinary Ichor”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 