With artists like Undeath, 200 Stab Wounds and Celestial Sanctuary all on the way up we have been enjoying a surge of popular and high-quality old school death metal bands in recent years. Sanguisugabogg (or just the ‘Bogg for those who don’t have the faith in their spelling to type the full name) are one of the bands at the forefront of this spearhead. With Homicidal Ecstasy they have added their slab of meat to the butchers table of death metal in 2023 – and it’s a prime cut.
Opener ‘Black Market Vasectomy’ is riff heavy and almost Meshuggah-esque at times, a huge wave of chugging and rolling guitar rhythms emulating a mechanically precise beating. ‘Followed by Face’ ripped off – a single released in January featuring Aaron Heard of Jesus Piece. This track showed off what becomes one of the crowning features of this release – it’s very catchy for an extreme metal song. The snare sounds just like you’d expect -think metal box being headbutted – and it’s prevalent in the mix so you don’t miss it. Cheeky doubles here and there keep the rhythm spicy, it’s a great start to an album.
‘Testicular Rot’. We’ll ignore the song title in favour of focusing on the riff at 3:10 which is hard as nails and definitely needs a listen if you are needing an adrenaline rush. ‘Skin Cushion’ throws ride bell flagrancy all over the listener to stun them before a lethal finish at the end of this song, unrelenting in its triumphant brutality. The riffs keep coming and they never get old, each more perfect and more suitable than the last, each one strategically implanted to hit just when you want it to – the savage image of Homicidal Ecstasy masks an unbelievably clever example of writing. Even after being chewed up and spat out by ‘Narcissistic Incisions’ and its’ double-kick fills you’re just ready for more. The tempo jumps up even more at the grief stricken ‘Mortal Admonishment’, a song which proves that the ‘Bogg can merge lyrics that hold real importance with murderous instrumentalism this late in the album and remain unphased in their aggression.
‘Proclamation of the Frail’ continues in the standard form for this album with big, chunky riffs and deep, evil vocals. We even get pinch harmonics on ‘Necrosexual Deviant’, alongside some impressively gruesome vocals – all the death metal boxes are being ticked in this journey of Neanderthalic riff-terror.
The album draws its killing spree to a close on ‘Feening For Bloodshed’ which is a catchy and heavy final flourish, taking just as long as it needs to be without becoming tiresome, more or less embodying the album in itself. If you like the brutality, thoughtlessness and at times stupidity of extreme music, there is so much to love about this album. This is fresh, piping hot Death Metal, so trust in the ‘Bogg and get your ears around what will surely prove to be one of the most iconic heavy releases of 2023.