Virus of Violence

I started listening to this album heavily a couple of weeks ago. Then I wanted to see "28 Days Later" movie by Danny Boyle. Well, these times are bad, and suitable music now is death metal/grindcore, eh?! Desensitised hailed from Netherlands and put out one demo, an EP, a split and this, their sole full-length album.

I recall I got this for a very cheap price on some sale a couple of years ago. People really haven't found this band, because this CD is limited to 2000 copies. Guitarist Susan Gerl played in God Dethroned, even though not on their albums, and GD are one of my favourite bands from Holland (from the beginning of 2020 they want to call their land as Netherlands, not Holland anymore; sorry, an old habit!!!), and it made me want to try the band when I saw this album in a webshop. The cover art certainly didn't; it's such a mess. 'Virus of Violence' includes 13 songs, that are all under 2-3 minutes long except for the closer.

I've heard bad short grindcore songs and albums, but 'Virus of Violence' is a potent and impetuous piece of force. Hacking riffing together with blast beats, ominous sounding death metal parts, and rocking punky beats paired with more loose guitar playing are biggest traits in Desensitised's songsmith. Then there's occasionally this black-ish death metal style happening, that really reminds me about God Dethroned circa 1999-2001; the song 'Introspective Exploration' is particularly a good example of this. Composition-wise, the band usually go twice through every part in a song, except for guitar solos of course and a couple of exceptions (like that weird rock part in 'Foetus in Fetu'). Okay, so the songs are about twice as long as typically in grindcore... They do repeat themselves at times, and some of the riffs are kind of annoying, so it's far from perfect, but still it is generally listenable and almost always at least okay.

The vocals consist of two voices. One of them is rather guttural growl, and the other is more high-pitched rabid bark. They take turns, or are heard simultaneously. I bet Carcass was the influence there, then, but they certainly aren't similar. They certainly aren't incomprehensible either. I wonder if Susan is performing the low growls... The lyrics inspect real world's hardship, be it sickness, religion, politics... Not the most typical way, though: "Rockets filled with lethal gas, laser-guided towards the mass, fuck resolving the impasse, negotiations up the ass." Yeah, comedy at times, but so is life...

Sound-wise this is pretty dry. It's in vein of Grave's 'Soulless' from 12 years earlier, but without the Swedish, or more like Stockholm-ish, flair. The snare sounds tight and snappy, and the guitars have pretty damn rusty tone into them. It is loud for sure! And if you are looking for some loud death metal/grindcore, here's a good album for you.

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

It's kind of nice to have a CD that's simply good and doesn't really demand a lot from you. 'Virus Of Violence' is consistent, relatively conventional, and enjoyable in every way: good songwriting, good production, good technical performances, good everything. It's not great in any way, but again, it's kind of nice to have a CD that's simply good without any aspirations towards genius; makes for a relaxing listen. Desensitised plays a somewhat thrashy breed of death/grind with influences from a lot of the big names in the Dutch scene such as God Dethroned, but also with some stranger elements like 'Soul Of A New Machine'-era Fear Factory. It's not unique, but it's stylistically independent enough to be worth a listen from the underground death metal fan.

This is very tight, compact music; the songs are mostly in the two and a half minute range, which doesn't leave a great deal of space to fuck around. This isn't quite brutal death, but it is an extreme and brutal variety of fast, savage death/grind, greatly focused around rhythmic and searing riffs alongside some pretty vicious vocals. Despite the natural heaviness and brutality of the music, it has a tone of alacrity and finesse to it which makes for a pleasing listen; the band navigates the twists and turns of the short and complex songs very well, and all the technical performances are spot-on, rigidly tight and almost mechanical in nature. The drumming style is what brings early Fear Factory to mind; the slightest bit of industrial/martial influence can be detected at times, and beyond that the primitive style of death/grind the band plays is reminiscent of that band's early works in more ways than one.

The absolute unwillingness of the band to let things ever get boring is what makes this such a good album; the slim, just over thirty minute running time and shortness of the songs makes for a fast-paced listen which never has the opportunity nor the inclination to slow down. Though relatively technical, performance-wise, the music is generally simple in nature; composed in a pseudo-riff slideshow form, some parts of this remind me a bit of Warface's intensely discrete musical sections, but with a little bit more narrative coherency in the overall songwriting. Yes, it comes off more as a collection of similarly themed songs rather than an album proper, but it's delivered so well and with such force that I can't bring myself to complain about a perceived lack of absolute musical coherency.

This isn't music that sets the world aflame, but its absolute consistency and well-thought out delivery makes it a worthwhile investment for death/grind fans. It's an album that can be listened to at just about any time and in succession without trouble; I can't imagine the sort of person who wouldn't like this apart from the most ardent of oldschool DM fans. If you like things with blast beats and growls, you should really grab this one; there's really nothing wrong with it apart from a lack of exposure. Well worth investigation from underground fans.