Defacement are an international death metal band and this is their fourth album.
I enjoyed 2021’s Defacement, but then totally managed to overlook its follow up from last year – Duality. This oversight ends now, as a year on from that release we have the 41-minute Doomed.
Too late I read the promo blurb, which states that “Doomed blends the visceral power of extreme metal with the raw intimacy of spoken word, navigating sonic territory that is both ambient and aggressively dissonant”. Ugh, spoken word, the bane of all music. Ahh well, I’ve committed now, so let’s see where this goes. Of course, it doesnt turn out to be as horrific as I’d feared, as otherwise this review simply would not have happened. In fact, I don’t detect any spoken word at all, at least not in any recognisably human tongue. Doomed is thoroughly daemonic, and therefore passes the spoken word test unscathed.
Doomed combines menacing ambient darkness, with extreme metal that blends black, death, and doom metal together into hideous slabs of sonic terror. It’s a cursed onslaught of dissonant dread, searing blackened intensity, ugly brutality, and foul malevolent atmosphere, making for songs that sound otherworldly and harsh. Yet, there is also a dark beauty here, hidden within the warped melodies and abrasive screaming. Perhaps something is calling to you from beyond the veil. Perhaps a closer listen is needed…
There’s an experimental darkness here that manifests as atypical extremity, creative aggression, and twisted worldbuilding. The music is a chaotic amalgamation of tortured sounds that have somehow been directed purposefully by their creators. Moments of calmer malign intelligence appear here and there, islands of respite amongst oceans of torment. Although they have real value in their own right, they primarily exist as precursors to horrors unleashed.
In truth, Doomed is a remarkably rich and varied album, considering its extremity. There is a fusion of the harsh and the sublime, albeit a twisted, corrupted version of the latter. Defacement have managed to nail down a dissonant style that’s unexpectedly individual, while still allowing for comprehensive atmospheric immersion via deft use of mood and feeling.
Doomed is an impressive beast. This is dissonant blackened death metal that differentiates itself from its erstwhile peers by virtue of existing in its own personal Hell dimension.
Embrace the nightmare. Embrace Defacement. Embrace Doomed.
Wonderbox Metal 