Artist: Defiled
Title: In Crisis
Type: Album
Label: Season of Mist

This time, it's “Defiled” (Japan), not one of the other Defiled bands doing the rounds. Japan is not a country that I automatically associate with death metal. Mental grind core, maybe, barely legible punk and earnest thrash metal yes, but death metal: no. As it turns out, Defiled have been doing the rounds for a long time, opening up for heavyweight acts Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Incantation back in the day. Their first album was even mixed at the Morrisound studios (remember those guys? Take a band: any band, put them through the “Burns Filter” and produce an identi-kit album). Well, after an eight year hiatus, the Japanese four piece are back with “In Crisis”, an album of perfectly acceptable death metal.

Now, if the phrase “perfectly acceptable” seems harsh, it isn't meant to be. What I mean is that this is essentially a completely workmanlike death metal release in the vein of American death metal. All the ingredients are there in the correct proportions and cooked to the correct temperature. The drums alternate between blast beats and more standard rock based drumming? Check. The axes mangle dizzying riffs with the occasional slower section? Yup. The singer growls like a Ford Transit has just parked on his foot and the driver has walked off? You betcha. The only surprise in the whole package is the bass sound – just slightly more twangy than the comedy “boing” noise used by animations studios. This isn't to say that “In Crisis” is without appeal. No sir, I did on a couple of occasions find myself producing involuntary grimacing and claw-of-grimness air ...erm...clawing, particularly on the epic “Unconscious Slavery” and the thrashy “Revelation of Doom”. It's just that for so many of the other dozen tracks on the CD, the resulting music was so average that I was glad I didn't listen to it while driving. Generally scarcely memorable for longer than the songs take to play, this brand of American death metal is loved, I know, by several of you out there, but to be honest, there are so many other bands doing the same thing, only better, that this is destined to remain on the “seldom listened to again” pile.

This aside, kudos to the band for touring Korea, Vietnam and Australia. Defiled have had line up changes, and I don't know if this had something to do with the song writing process for “In Crisis”. The most pressing criticism I have is that many of the songs just aren't very memorable at all, though I honestly can't criticise the energy of the band, nor their musical abilities. Maybe next time, fellows?

http://www.defiled.info