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SANGUISUGABOGG
Homicidal Ecstasy

Century Media (2023)
Rating: 8/10

With the all too familiar uniform of chequered lumberjack shirts, long sleeved death metal sweatshirts and combat pants, Columbus, Ohio-based death merchants Sanguisugabogg continues its putrid trek into the human psyche with more depraved tales and sordid, boggy riffs.

Since their 2019 demo, Pornographic Seizures, the combo has been plying us with various singles, a debut full-length (Tortured Whole) in 2021 and now this chug fest. There is no doubt that these guys know how to throw a party; their riffs have become a soundtrack to the lives of many who seek pleasure in seedy, guttural dynamics and a sordid swagger that is both swampy and danceable, if you dare!

Homicidal Ecstasy features 12 tracks, all wrapped up in a sodden Mortician-style of traipsing where chesty vocals contend with occasional rank blast beats. But for the most part this is trudging low-budget video nasty death metal drenched by its downtuned picking and gnarly snare.

Of course, tracks such like ‘Black Market Vasectomy’, ‘Testicular Rot’ and ‘Necrosexual Deviant’ are tasteless but bereft of shock value with whatever lyrics they throw at you, with the key here being the groove-based riffage which at times harkens back to the days when that debut Napalm Death record (Scum, 1987) was rounding up the kids in those real hardcore mosh pits.

I think what Sanguisugabogg really need to be commended on is their natural chemistry to make this squalid tone work; the fantastic percussion has no doubt been overlooked but it is a pivotal spine to this swaggering heap of oozing junk. It is caveman metal of the lowest level and that’s a compliment to the joyously catchy constructions these guys create.

Rapid fire rhythms exist also within this chamber of flesh, but us fans are just so eager to chomp on the bit of another chunky riff that by the time this opus has finished you’ll be straight back to the beginning to once again revel in its basement delights.

Just like one of those old mould-ridden video tapes you kept under the bed for all those years and constantly returned to, Sanguisugabogg’s latest album requires little tracking and only half your attention span, and yet you’ll revisit its seedy pleasures regularly.

Neil Arnold

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