Review: Defleshed “Grind Over Matter” [Metal Blade Records]

Here’s a thrashy death metal/grindcore album that isn’t always great but has its good moments, and above all, a lot of energy.

The little issues I have is that the album can be very repetitive, some tracks are too similar and don’t feel like they have enough efforts put into them. But there still are some very good parts, like the first track, “Bent out of Shape” and its ferocious vocals and relentlessly heavy, thrashing riffs. That one pumps your blood and gets you pumped up for the rest of the album.

This one, with its wild energy, serves as a sort of model for the rest of the album, which re-uses its mix of short, fast tracks, thrash/death riffs and sort of raspy grunts. The title track is a good use of that formula, being a really kick ass, energetic number, and having a fun title that distorts a common saying or a reference. The chorus, almost chanting that title, is pretty catchy. We get one more of those titles with the sinister “One Grave to Fit Them All”. This one has a more gloomy and sinister vocal performance, though it doesn’t vary much from the previous tracks. While this track adds a nice dark and creepy undertone, it doesn’t go far enough in that direction and recycles riffs from previous tracks. Same thing with “Blood Well Spent”, which begins with sort of gloomy keyboards and spoken word, and goes back to the generic riffs, but still offers some pretty cool drum parts. “Dear Devil” is at least more ambitious, being a sort of prayer to the Devil to take the narrator away from this world, set to a weird raspy spoken-growled vocal performance and super loud and fast riffs. A pretty cool song about wanting to join demons because you believe to be superior to other humans.

The rest however is somewhat more repetitive. But despite the overall feel that every track is just a slight variation on the first one, the album retains a lot of fun energy. We get that in the short, to the point thrasher “Heavy Haul”, and the equally fierce and fast “Staring Blind”. The last part of the album is rather generic, but there are a few nice moments that shine here and there. “Unburdened by Genius” is pretty fast-paced and has a catchy “Religious, vainglorious, unburdened by ge-ni-us” chorus. “Behind Dead Eyes” uses an interesting sinister growl, but that’s about all it has going for it. At least, the last two tracks are more interesting. “Blast Beast” is another pun title and showcases some pretty good drumming. “Last Nail in the Coffin” is loud and energetic, with fierce vocals, and ends with the sound of nails being hammered into a coffin, closing this album for good.

This album was not great, without being terrible. But unlike other mediocre/average albums, its flaws were more obvious and easier to identify. The songs just repeat the same instrumentation way too much, and the vocals have moments of brilliance but are mostly generic and rather inexpressive grunts. However, the album’s good parts are also easier to spot. The songs also have a great energy, and various good ideas that I’ve detailed earlier. It’s an album that, while not great, has most of the ingredients in place to be great, and is definitely good in some parts. If anything, due to its great energy and usually well-crafted songs, it could still appeal to many of you.