Sanguisugabogg – Homicidal Ecstasy
February 3rd, 2023
Death Metal
Century Media Records
Columbus, Ohio, USA
Returning from the filth from whence they originally came, Columbus, Ohio death metal quartet Sanguisugabogg have returned with their second full length album. Released once again through Century Media Records, this new album, entitled Homicidal Ecstasy, features the same kind of slow, plodding, death metal grooves that their previous record provided, only the catchiness factor has been upped to a new degree. I knew before delving into this thing that I was probably going to dig the hell out of it, especially given the quality of the singles that dropped prior to the full album releasing. I’m happy to say that this album does indeed go hard, though it is not without its drawbacks.
Devin Swank is once again back on vocals and his performance is as foul and mutilating as ever. This guy’s voice occasionally sounds like its being spewed directly out of a backed up toilet, and that’s without ever delving into pig squeals even a single, solitary time on this album’s entire runtime. Rather his vocal performance is pretty consistent from beginning to end, obviously drawing a lot of inspiration from the lords of guttural death metal vocals like Corpsegrinder as well as Lord Worm.
The riffs on here, provided by Ced Davis and Drew Arnold, both of whom have seemingly replaced former guitarist Cameron Boggs, are groovy as all hell. From beginning to end this record is full of nothing but some of the grooviest death metal riffage you’ll probably hear all year. While a lot of this is accentuated by the drums, you’ll notice a lot of the writing on the guitars here is inspired by the slower styling of death metal heard on certain cuts by Morbid Angel as well as even, to a lesser degree, bands like Gojira. While there is seemingly no bass present on this album, at least according to the credits on Metal Archives, that means that one of the guitars here is tuned down absurdly low, because some tracks, like “Face Ripped Off”, start off with what sounds like a bass riff, but there’s supposedly no bass present on this record. If that is indeed the case I think it’s pretty much indistinguishable from a regular bass so I’m not sure what the deal is there.
As I have already mentioned, the drums, performed by Cody Davidson, are fabulous, and are actually a big part of what makes this record stand out. While the riffs are no doubt great, they wouldn’t be half as good as they are if it wasn’t for the groove laid down by the drums. Most of the tracks on here receive their catchiness and memorability through the drums, which add so much variety to what would in a lot of cases be considered bogg standard slam death metal riffage. Davidson’s drumming choices, like introducing the song “Skin Cushion” with eight quick hits on the bell of the ride cymbal, or the disco beat laid down in “Pissed”, are just some examples of his overall creativity behind the kit. While the drumming is mostly pretty slow and groovy throughout, there are the occasional moments filled with blast beats or rapid-fire double bass drumming.
The production on this thing is decent, though I feel like sometimes the guitars become so muddled in comparison to the clarity of the drums and the very loud presence of the vocals that I can’t really tell what’s being played. This isn’t always the case, but especially during some of the sections where the guitars are playing faster it becomes a bit more difficult to discern a melody amongst the cacophony. Perhaps this was intentional as extreme music in this vein often pushes that boundary of listenability, but I still wish I could hear what’s going on during these parts.
Lyrically this album doesn’t really break the mold. The songs are mostly about the typical stuff you’ve heard growled about in the overarching canon of death metal since its inception. There’s a lot of songs here about violent murder fantasies which can take on a grotesque and disturbing quality as you’re put into the shoes of a depraved killer stalking and disemboweling their victim. Other songs, like “Black Market Vasectomy” have a bit more of a darkly humorous tone to them, engaging in the kind of gross-out toilet humour you’d expect from teenage boys, not that that’s a bad thing. Some of the songs do get a bit much in terms of their utilization of violence against women as a topic, especially on “Testicular Rot”, though once again, this has been par for the course for death metal since time immemorial.
While the album does have some minor pitfalls here and there I do think that overall this is a pretty solid sophomore release from these death metal upstarts. Sanguisugabogg, the band who’s name is the combination of the Latin word for leech with a British slang term for a toilet, sounds exactly like you’d expect them to sound. They’re brutal, they’re heavy as fuck, they groove with the best of them, and they don’t pull their punches with any of them. If anything this album’s primary sin is that it does tend to drag on a bit towards the end. If it was a bit shorter, perhaps closer to 30 or 35 minutes, instead of 45 minutes, I’d probably have found it easier to digest. That said, if you’re into extreme music there’s a decent chance you’ll dig this record.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Great
Favourite Tracks:
“Black Market Vasectomy”
“Face Ripped Off”
“Pissed”
“A Lesson in Savagery”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 