Defiled
Ugliness Revealed

The Defiled is a Japanese quartet, active for about ten years now, with two full-length albums and several demos to their credit. What I'm going to review is not their first LP, but one dated 2001, in which the band resumes the discussion started in their previous works.

I'll start by saying that these four Japanese must have said “Goodbye” to their brains several years ago, definitely before picking up the instruments and starting to play: the album in question is absolutely irrational and devoid of logic. The songs are extremely structured and complex, with continuous tempo changes and "melody": the guitar riffs are the most bizarre that could be conceived by a human mind and alternate parts of immense power with schizoid scales that are insurmountable obstacles for any guitarist or so-called one. The drummer performs numbers of considerable difficulty, moving from very tight tempos to slower counter-tempos without many problems: it can be said that his drumming is a white fly in the Death scene since it rarely resorts to genre clichés (long double bass drum rolls or blast beats). The bassist also flaunts exceptional technical skills; especially considering that the group is equipped with only one guitar and therefore this guy has to work doubly hard to fill the sound, his skills are far above even other great bassists and they can be heard and appreciated on multiple occasions. The vocals are a very deep growl and not at all gurgling, in short, an excellent singing, very lasting and of the right tone.

In short, you must understand that there are the conditions to give life to an excellent Brutal/Death band, namely impeccable performers even in the most complicated passages (which I assure you there are many, indeed almost all thirty-six minutes of this album) and very imaginative, finally equipped with a very capable singer; unfortunately, however, it lacks the homogeneity necessary to make “Ugliness Revealed” a listenable album. The riffing results in more than half of the album so illogical that it borders on, indeed, sinks into cacophony; not only that, unlike bands like Dillinger Escape Plan and Cephalic Carnage (those with whom the comparison is most spontaneous), The Defiled puts together a sequence of visions and deliriums that flow away without leaving a very deep trace.

The drummer's performance then is as brilliant as it is fruitless: although there are plenty of interesting insights and it is very peculiar and unusual, the irreproducibility of his passages makes them unrecognizable and, above all, with little impact and not very engaging. Even if the work done by the four is indispensable from the point of view of expertise, it is truly hard to digest and unclassifiable in any genre. It is also difficult to cite any band they might reference: in fact, their sound does not simply replicate or propose according to their reading the sound of the two previously named bands but adds a particularly dark vein dear to old school Brutal Death. It seems, therefore, to be facing a Free Jazz album (very, very free) with the power and attitude of the most technical and brutal Brutal: despite this definition may seem enticing to many lovers of extreme music, I find it necessary to emphasize its negative side, because in fact it translates into pure unlistenability. The "melodies," if we want to call them that, are the result of phonetic juxtapositions so experimental that they are annoying, and at the same time, the typical emotional, or even just sensory impact of Mathcore or Industrial is absent.

It must be said that the inadequate production (too chaotic and not full enough) greatly damages the album's mood, which therefore appears quite expressionless. For this reason, it seems appropriate to compare it to Free Jazz, a pure exercise in off-key and disorganized style: unfortunately, Jazz lovers will find this album too harsh while Death fans will not recognize it as belonging to the genre. I myself enjoy this CD only because it belongs neither to one nor the other and because The Defiled has created a niche all for themselves. In conclusion, I would like to point out that of the eighteen total tracks, only eleven are actual songs; the remaining ones are intros made of noises and sounds, to be honest not very significant but not in bad taste either (which is usual in the genre). Furthermore, the material of this album was written in the years from 1997 to 2000 and recorded in the historic Morrisound Studios (already recording rooms of Death pioneers like Cannibal Corpse, Death, Deicide, Obituary, Suffocation, Gorguts, and many others): you will therefore not be surprised to find that in some songs the sound is decidedly rougher. A note of merit for the lyrics, truly beautiful, elegant, almost Svevian: they vaguely recall the lyrics of the never too much lamented Chuck Schuldiner of Death (RIP) for their careful and aggressive analysis of the worst human stereotypes (the hypocrite, the liar, etc.).

“Ugliness Revealed” has many merits and will undoubtedly leave you astounded, but beyond that, it will provoke very few other reactions: a well-composed and better-played album, but on the whole inconclusive.