Cattled into mania by a wholly propagandized existence and lead unto death by a total loss of consensus reality amidst the polis all paths lead to mass-death amidst suffocating state control as Tokyo, Japan-based death metal quartet DEFILED reveal the daemonic downturn of corporatized civilization on this characteristic ninth full-length album. Arguably the tightest writ and well-contained representation of the band’s decades-stoked existence in recent years ‘Altered State‘ carries all of the odd-thrashing, brutal and grinding force they’ve fostered since the mid-90’s. Though it overserves this impact to some degree this latest album notably represents all sides and faces of their exploration, a fine representation of past-and-present vision in gloriously compacted glom.

Defiled have been active since 1992 under the direction of guitarist and main composer Yusuke Sumita alongside a host of musicians who’d contributed to the bands various eras since. After nine albums they’ve proven less than nostalgic, generally uninterested in compiling and restating their early impact in the mid-to-late 90’s, but I would go to bat for the brilliant intensities of their debut EP, ‘Defeat of Sanity‘ (1994) and their first full-length ‘Erupted Wrath‘ (1999). Since you cannot likely access either release online, at all, I will suggest they are some of the more underappreciated gems of Japanese death metal of particular interest to folks after 90’s brutal, technical and progressive death associated sounds. These releases are worthy of reissue as they showcase the ahead-of-their-time consistency of the band’s underground legacy.

The technical brutality and skronking muse of their third album (‘Ugliness Revealed‘, 2001) always reminded me of early Anata, angular and technical death with a uniquely frenetic groove to it which was yet rooted in classic Florida death metal beside thrashing n’ grinding movement via odd-timed rhythms. The actual sound Sumita and company had produced wasn’t so far removed from the spastic pulse of early Cryptopsy but with more progressive death standards applied, a great bass guitar sound and tightly writ reduction of the otherwise note-heavy grooves of mid-90’s death metal. These aspects of their gig persist today as I’d detailed in review of Defiled‘s sixth LP (‘Infinite Regress‘, 2020). The two albums released beyond that point have incorporated a grinding, hardcore punk inflected hand which relies upon congestion of statement, interruptive quick-turns and ruggedly brutal yet compressed sound design for impact. Those releases offer the most important precedence set in approach of album number nine.

Described as a direct continuation of the two prior Defiled releases ‘Altered State‘ offers dystopian commentary centered around the subject of state control, apocalyptic evil, mass death events and the zombification of the public. Inspired by Orwell’s 1984 in application to the present day the lyrics notably do not frame daemonic evil as the liberator of mankind but rather a force within that has erupted into genocidal, suicidal mass hypnosis. Their approach is otherwise possessed by its own signature wherein the same general approach is a given: A loud and stampeding drum sound dominates frantically flowing riff-driven, grinding and oddball movement in brutal (sometimes thrashing) succession.

Faced with total consistency spanning the last decade plus we’ve little more than minutiae and nuance to peck at within the already well-defined signature of Defiled. Production values have generally improved album-over-album but remain compressed, drum impact is yet loud as all hell and some of the progressive thrash inspired hand of Sumita‘s style appears on the uptick here. That last point is especially true within the pairing of standout “Obsession” via its classic thrash chunked riffcraft and “Portal“. The latter almost comes across like a brutal cover of something off an early Outrage album, a bounding melodic verse riff cut between stomping declarative movement for contrast. The former was the first song to catch my ear and remains my favorite piece overall per its odd-timed opening stretch and the circular conversation it ultimately has between each riff.

The full listen of ‘Altered State‘ upholds Defiled‘s commitment to intense containment wherein each of the fourteen songs included feature zero filler in their midst and clock in well under four minutes in all but one case. This creates a sense of locked-in congestion which has long been a feature of their late 90’s ’til early 2000’s becoming but shouldn’t indicate an album experience which is relevant to brutal death metal style so much as it is cut from an era of concise bludgeon and loudness. The punkish progressions, wriggling prog-death movement, and oftentimes deathgrind-esque compaction create a total effect which appears familiar at face value but is ultimately the band’s own. Per my own taste they are at their best when combining the more hardlined grinding spasticity with the creepily flowing ebb of progressive thrash (see: “The Degradation”, “The Ultra Death”, etc.) but in any case whenever Sumita pulls ideas from the band’s decades refined ouevre they offer thoughtful juxtapositions delivered within measured simplicity.

Over on Side B the rhythmic step of “Lunatics” next to the punkish Voivod-esque jigging of “Prophecies” echo the best parts of ‘The Highest Level‘ (2023) while reinforcing what “Portal” had introduced into their vernacular earlier on. These (+ closer “Apocalyptic End”) are some of my favorite riffs and moments on the full listen, jolts of energetic weirdness on the radar which’d gone a long way toward sustaining interest on repeated listens. The most reasonable criticism to launch at this approach is that this is all that we get for the ~43 minute duration of ‘Altered State‘ as Defiled stick to their own lane and avoid branching off subject or sub-genre. None of the songs included here miss or flop within their general conceit but it’d all have hit just as well within a more compact ~35 minute stretch.

Be it 1994 or 2006 the intense, quick-thinking fixation of Defiled‘s take on death metal manages to capture my interest while yet delivering damage to the skull. ‘Altered State’ upholds the rigid sense of self that has long inhabited their realm while upping some of their finer traits, the heavily detailed spouts of thrashing progressivity given balance via brutal and “hardcorish” impact. No doubt ‘ready indoctrinated fans will find what they’re after within but I’d suggest that this is probably their best release of the last decade or so. A high recommendation.

---