Sanguisugabogg - Homicidal Ecstasy (2023)

Homicidal Ecstasy took a little more time for me to come around to than its predecessors. While the style here is largely the same, there was something more consistently level about the production and writing which I found a bit of a turnoff upon first exposure, perhaps a lack of dynamic excitement that Tortured Whole managed to cultivate. The weird photographic cover collage was also weird, I mean I appreciate 'weird', but a trio of cum-guzzling crab-legged women that seems really disjointed looking? Maybe half the legs are form a scorpion? I don't know, but right when I think it's hideous, I remember the impact the collages on old Carcass had upon me, or other goregrind staples, and then appreciate that Sanguisugabogg have chosen imagery that does something stranger yet sexual enough for their pervy themes.

When I mentioned that the production here felt a little too steady, that wasn't to infer that it was in any way bad, and once I cranked through the album's 45 minutes, their hugest undertaking yet, I began to appreciate how it kept and perhaps even increased the 'weight' of their sound. These rhythm guitars chop and groove like serrated metal beaters through vats of spaghetti and meatballs, and the bass is just so enormous that I felt like I would need to rush to the toilet and vacate myself at any moment. The drums are still vitally important hear with all the splashing, rims, and fills, yet they actually sound better reined in and not popping out in any antagonistic way. There are several tracks where the transitions feel a bit muddled and unexcited, like how the blasts poke through into "Hungry for Your Insides", and it only makes me crave the slower, chugging rhythms, but even there you're getting some sick drums and an appreciable beatdown from the vocals. In other places, like "A Lesson in Savagery", they seem as if they're utilizing some more dissonant chords to solid effect, and I think this is one area in which Sanguisusabogg could continue to evolve and make themselves sound even more evil.

The grooves and beats in several of the tracks also come off a little more ambitious, like the closer "Feeing for Bloodshed", and it's cool that, in their own microcosmic sound, they're still trying a few new tricks. Gone are the sweet synth interludes from the prior album, though, and I think something like that, or just something more atmospheric...perhaps some samples and ambiance, would have helped break this album up, because it can feel like a chore to get through at times. Almost like the whole affair is about 10-15 minutes longer than it needs to be, without compelling content to fill all that time. 7-8 of the tracks are evidently better than the rest, and that drags the overall quality a bit below the debut, even if the heavy instrumentation itself is no less for ambition and knuckle-brawling extremity. Still, the Ohio boys bring the punishment and perversion beyond the bare minimum required, avoiding the sophomore slump if not quite improving upon themselves.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://sanguisugabogg.com/

Sanguisugabogg - Tortured Whole (2021)

The viral success of the caveman stable soon led Sanguisugabogg to a deal with Century Media, bringing this underground sensation to a broader level of visibility, an amusing contrast against their smeared logo and warped cover art which begs you not to understand it. I'm not complaining, I bought a long sleeve around this time, maybe just before the album with similar artwork and green logo on yellow material, which I still love to this day. Thankfully, Tortured Whole is both more of the same we heard on Pornographic Seizures, and simultaneously a little more expansive due to the 34 minute playground in which the Ohio group, at this point a trio, found itself. I hate to call anything like this 'mature', but this certainly hears the group settling into a more seasoned
confidence with their loping, simple-minded brutality.

Two things that stood out immediately were the way the rims and other drums popped out to a degree that was almost obnoxious if it wasn't so loveable, and Devin's vocals seem to get even more efficient and guttural, sometimes almost as toilet-bowl as an Antti Bowman. The riffs sound even more chunky than on the EP, and at the same time even a little more 'progressive' in how they wander the frets to create little grooves and moods that remind me of anything from Cannibal Corpse to 90s Death. For a band so crammed into its own entrail-strewn niche, I never get the feeling that they're uninterested in offering a degree of variation for the listener. The rhythm guitar chug is amazing on its own, almost impossible to resist as it starts plunking along, but there are a few more layers here thanks to how they effortlessly mix aesthetics from the late 80s OSDM to the brutal low end of the next decade. The bass lines here are even louder than the previous release, and while they're not always doing much by themselves, they help the album feel like it standing astride you and just beating you slowly to a pulp with two fat fists, ground and fucking pound dudes.

What I didn't expect were the horror-synth interludes courtesy of Cody, who was already pulling double duty on the bass and drums. These aren't your usual neon-lit sort, danceable sort, but more something you'd hear in an obscure, low budget horror film or Giallo, usually from Europe. They're both really good and actually appear at precisely the right time for you to take a breath from the beatings, and in fact I think they're cool enough that I wouldn't have minded more, perhaps integrated directly into the brutal tunes as intros or interludes. Regardless, they help flesh out the experience on the whole, and right as you've escaped they'll drag you back in with some ridiculous chugging grooves. Tortured Whole is a good debut which proves the band wasn't just a flash in the pan, and that bigger label exposure was not about to soften the impact of their unforgiving knuckle sandwich aesthetics. It's no masterpiece, but it's got a timeless attitude about it which I always appreciate in the moment.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://sanguisugabogg.com/

Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures EP (2019)

I'm probably a bit guilty of riding the whole 'caveman riff' death metal wave circa Maggot Stomp and a few other labels as much as the next guy. Like so many throwback sounds, I appreciated how the gents in all these bands were tracing death metal back to its source and then sort of reconfiguring it into some alternate universe sound which didn't sound terribly different than what I already had, but still entertained. Here we've got rudimentary slam or groove/death metal plastered with just enough of the machismo and brutality to get the pit stirring but without too much of the technical bluster or studio polish, and Ohio's starlings Sanguisugabogg are arguably one of the bands to best to capitalize on the style, leading to larger label deals and a lot of notoriety across the US scene and beyond.

Part of this is because of the band's absurd name and logo, which they themselves have so often joked about on their amusing yet down-to-Earth social media presence, which they also manage a lot more personally than some other bands on the same level. There's a bit of 'class clown' to their whole schtick, but they have the muscle and groove to back it all up, and this debut release, the first I actually picked up from Sanguisugabogg, is dope for what it offers. Bro-core distilled into death metal, with grooving and organic drums, loaded up with some interesting fills, and then plastered in these epic, crunching rhythm guitars which make it impossible to remain still. I'm not promising you that the actual riffs are always catchy, but Cameron Boggs is clearly adventuring a little bit more than you'd expect, with a few winding patterns that he alternates into the usual double-bass driven tremolo evil of vintage late 80s death. The bass is also pretty ruddy and dense in the traditions of grind and death and it adds some bombast to the already knuckle-dragging neolithic brutality inherent to the songs.

Devin Swank takes it over the top though with his stark, evil gutturals, splayed out with just the right amount of reverb to make them sound appropriately ominous, even when he ups the pitch just a bit for a deep snarl. That's where so much of this EP's 'don't give a fuck' attitude manifests, and the band can just stand aloft the pit of flailing meathead bodies and dominate for 11 minutes. There's nothing really novel about what this band has put out there...maybe some more fills than you'd expect, a couple riffs that go into more depth than you hear coming, but all of these techniques were writ large across thousands of seminal and underground death metal/brutal death metal acts in the 90s. It's like a dash of Finnish guttural slime to top off some street level New York butchery via a dumbed-down Suffocation with Mortician overtures and cheesy Cannibal Corpse-style lyrics. Sanguisabogg just recycles this aesthetic into its own grim, humorous personality and for my money, tunes like "Turkish Blood Orgy" and "Succulent Dedecent" rank among their best. A fun introduction.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://sanguisugabogg.com/