Those of you who follow the murky sewerage world of underground death metal will probably be already familiar with Ohio act Sanguisugabogg whose name is an amalgamation of ‘sanguisuga’ which is Latin for leech and the UK slang word for a toilet ‘bog’ though with an added letter g for some reason. I was surprised to see that this band had been signed to Century Media so quickly but they certainly must have seen something and having listened to the debut and this latest sophomore I can hear why.

There are few death metal bands as ugly and grotesque as this depraved bunch, their debut album ‘Tortured Whole’ was saturated in down-tuned murky death metal and whilst the sophomore continues that journey into miasmic deathly sludge oblivion the band has added a few snippets to break from the gut-gurgling monstrousness, not that gut-gurgling monstrousness is bad, far from it, the band are masters of it. ‘Black Market Vasectomy’ begins the guttural onslaught and at first the riff style and sound reminded me of Italian goregrinders Guineapig, packed with groove and the truly hideous vocals of Devin Swank whose tone is as low as is possible linked to harsh piercing shrieks that make the songs schizophrenic and savagely effective.

‘Face Ripped Off’ does what the song title says as the bands main influence rears up here, namely Mortician, with the deep rumbling low end producing tons of asphyxiating bass amidst the riffing bloodshed. As I sat listening to this album I felt myself shaking my head with incredulity, at how incredibly the dense yet clear the sound is, instead of the songs being utterly ridiculously heavy, which it is, the band makes use of that aspect and punctures everything with the excellent vocals, blast beat inserts and occasional slam riffs. Every song has something different about it, as ‘Pissed’ shows, that goregrind feel rears up like a Golem that reminded me of Undeath due to the speed switching, but it is the slower pacing I particularly like about these songs which in parts are very like UK band Slob.

‘Hungry For Your Insides’ is a short vicious 90 second annihilation replete with slamming groove and vocal disembowelment as the switch into ‘Skin Cushion’ has an arterial spray of Cannibal Corpse running through it. With the insanely heavy ‘A Lesson In Savagery’ Cody Davidson’s humongous drum work stands out massively, bulldozing the listener with relentless fills, rolls and ultimately pulverises the life from you.

Mortician reappears on ‘Narcissistic Incisions’ and whilst my reference to that band is valid, it really is purely down to the sound and grinding mayhem rather than the riff style as ‘Mortal Admonishment’ continues the unabating destruction. I cannot overstate just how dense and oppressive the sound is on this album, it feels like it has a sense of consciousness, even a sonic corporeality that moves over and through you at every opportunity as the release concludes with the doublet of ‘Necrosexual Deviant’ and ‘Feening For Bloodshed’ with the former offering Cannibal Corpse like slowness again, think ‘Gallery Of Suicide’ material, but supplied with copious brutality and the splash of blasting ferocity, whereas the latter (feening means obsessive craving when I looked it up) is snappier, still inhumanly penetrating as the closer saps the very last milligram of life-force you may still have after listening to this gruesome and horrifying album. I sincerely hope the band returns to our shores so I can catch them live to hear the songs, though the album cover art is plain bizarre.

(9/10 Martin Harris)

https://www.facebook.com/sanguisugabogg

https://sanguisugaboggband.bandcamp.com/album/homicidal-ecstasy