Spitting Savagery

I, in my infinite wisdom, have decided that Defacing are avid fans of Cryptopsy’s “None So Vile” album. As if the cover of “Phobophile” at the end of this CD wasn’t a dead giveaway, the eight original tracks here all sound like a dead ringer for that album – plenty of frenzied, chaotic guitar riffs centred around maddened tremolo abuse, pinch-harmonics and a healthy dose of unhinged lead breaks, spastic technical drumming with bass drums taking as much prominence as the (extremely dry) snare, and of course unintelligible grunted gurgle vocals sounding like a dead ringer for Lord Worm. That’s not to say this band has no identity, but the influence is so glaring you’ll need sunglasses.

Am I complaining? Fuck no. Especially since the last two Cryptopy albums sucked, and the new one probably will too, unless they step back from their headlong rush into technical overkill. Defacing, meanwhile, have taken everything that was good about Cryptopsy’s older material and picked the ball up, and are proceeding to smash you in the face with it. This album is a non-stop tirade of brutality infused with enough sincere hatred to make it rule. Oh, and they throw in some wicked samples from Hellraiser, which is always good. Since we’ll probably never hear another album like NSV from it’s creators, I’m more than happy that Defacing are around to continue its glorious tradition of complete madness.