Intention Surpassed

This is much, much better than Defecation's first album, contrary to the belief of most of the metal populace. Coming fourteen years after the band's debut, 'Intention Surpassed' can be safely referred to as a very strong death/grind album which is worth a purchase from just about any extreme metal fan. All elements of the music are greatly improved on this release, and most of all, the band actually has A SOUND OF ITS OWN that isn't connected to mercilessly replicating mid-era Napalm Death tracks. Honestly, you almost can't believe it's the same band.

It seems that the drums on this release are programmed; if not, they're heavily triggered, perhaps the result of an electronic kit. Either way, they sound excellent, with a more extreme, sharp edge helping to distance Defecation from Napalm Death. Gone are the attempts at low vocals, replaced entirely with high, grating crust/grind screams, which works AMAZINGLY to the album's benefit. The low vocals were a big hit against 'Purity Dilution', but that problem is entirely fixed on this release, and the new vocals, despite their uniformity of performance, never get boring. The music does still heavily resemble mid-era Napalm Death, but enough has been added to prevent the formula from being as stale as it was on the first album.

'Intention Surpassed' is a full-fledged death/grind/crust/thrash album, and despite this wide array of influences, the result is entirely coherent. The improved clarity of modern production has given each instrumental voice a fast, clean, and extremely aggressive tone, which is a great way to represent the myriad of riffs on this release. These riffs range from simple crust/grind three-chord strums that one would hear on a Disfear 7" to more convoluted death metal riffs that resemble a mixture of Morbid Angel circa 'Covenant' and 'Harmony Corruption'-era Napalm Death. No matter what the style, each is catchy, memorable, and placed extremely well within the song. The structures of those songs hold a simple elegance that one finds in some of the best extreme metal; it's poppy without being too predictable, looping back on itself after appropriate stretches of repetition, and never gets tired or changes for the sake of changing.

This is not a strictly necessary album as it adds little to death/grind in general; it's merely very well executed. However, for those who enjoy oldschool death/grind, there's little out there that does it as consistently well as this album. You can safely ignore 'Purity Dilution', but this one demands attention from extreme metal fans looking for something with the quality of first-tier acts without the popularity. It's very good and I wonder if it'll be another fourteen years before the next one.

Their first Purity Dilution had his importance for the growing grindcore movement that found in the British groups some of the maximum exponents for brutality and malevolence. After 14 years Defecation returned with a brand new album that features the only Mitch Harris to play all the instruments. He decided to start again this project because he had some left songs from the past and he was curious about how they would have sounded in an album. I can give the answer for him: they sound normal, artificial and quite yawn.

Purity Dilution was a bit better than Scum (I cannot stand that album) but far worse if compared to the inhuman World Downfall. Defecation on the debut were quite good anyway, without being exceptional. What I liked the most on the debut was the metallic, pounding production; a thing to forget here. The sounds are really artificial, and the drums are the main example. There are two possibilities: or they are completely artificial with a drum machine or they are utterly triggered. The guitars are normal in their distortion (grind one) and this is the thing I like the most. The vocals are childish, screamed in pure old school grind tradition but sometimes (lots of times) are filtrated and weird, with an artificial sound.

The songs are generally very fast with lots of riffs and blast beats. Anyway we can also find some more mid paced parts like in “Fibre Optical Illusion”. These parts last for few seconds in a hellish holocaust of strange vocals, cold production and grind restarts. As you understood it’s not another Purity Dilution because there are lots of differences between the two. “2/3” is terribly artificial in the vocals that have one tonality only, and screamed like that the whole matter is a bit stressing and pounding. I’ve always preferred the death/grind instead of the most pure grindcore or the gore grind.

The parts I liked the most are the ones in which the drums are on the typical mosh, punkish up tempo with the very audible guitars (“Under Surveillance”, “Chronically Preserved”), but when the vocals enter the sound I really feel like exhausted. As always in this genre (or better, in some albums in this genre) there are not so impressive songs and if someone has the ability in distinguish one song from the other ones is almost a genius to me. Let me say that, anyways, the riffs are quite good and “different” in the various songs but none of them is so outstanding to be marked out.

I don’t know, it’s not a bad album, it depends on what you want. It’s grind with some more “progressive” influences and weird, raspy shrieks. Now, it’s up to you but it doesn’t shine in my personal collection.

There were some rumors circulating about the fact DEFECATION would reform with the two Harris brothers! It was great news since I really enjoyed "Purity dilution"! But Mitch Harris was the only one to compose this CD, he also played all the instruments here.
And well, it's not as killer and impressive as I thought it would be. I'd rather consider it as another one of the numerous side projects of some NAPALM DEATH members than a real DEFECATION release!
What you have here is extreme metal with various influences ranging around Death metal, Grindcore, Crust, Punk and Hardcore. It sounds a lot like NAPALM DEATH's last releases!
Most of the stuffs here are fast, with plenty of blast beats, the tracks are well articulated and it has the benefits of a good production, but nothing marked me as it remains only cool...
I don't like so much their vocals, somekind of high-pitched screams with a lot of distortion. In a way, it sounds fresh like NAPALM DEATH's "Inside the torn apart". There are some good moments fans of NAPALM will enjoy, but I can't avoid thinking a part of it was riffs Napalm Death didn't use because it wasn't good enough...
As a whole, it remains Ok, quite cool, but there are so many NAPALM DEATH CDs circulating I wouldn't order it! I know I won't listen to this CD more than 3 times because I've listened a lot to NAPALM DEATH's new releases ("Inside the torn apart", "Words from the exit wound", "Enemy of the music business"...) and there's nothing really new or better than these 3 albums.
If another "band" had released this CD I would have been more positive, but Mitch Harris did it and I had higher expectations! You enjoy new Napalm Death's stuffs? You haven't listened to their last CDs too much? Why not...