Description

Red vinyl

While some bands need several years and dozens of albums to gain the proper recognition among fans and critics, Defecation needed just one release to become a legend among the grindcore community. ‘Purity Dilution’ was recorded and mixed in 29 hours and landed like an atom bomb on unsuspecting minds, opening a new chapter in extreme music. Fourteen years later Defecation returned to glory with the follow-up album ‘Intention Surpassed’, which was yet another piece of sick and brutal sounds. Some say that modern extreme music wouldn’t be the same without this band. And they’re not mistaken Defecation to this day remains a powerful influence for the whole grindcore community. The second album is better than the debut contrary to the belief of most of the metal populace. Coming fourteen years after the band’s debut, ‘Intention Surpassed’ can be safely referred to as a very strong death/grind album which is worth a purchase from just about any extreme metal fan. All elements of the music are greatly improved on this release, and most of all, the band actually has a sound of its own that isn’t connected to mercilessly replicating mid-era Napalm Death tracks. Honestly, you almost can’t believe it’s the same band. It seems that the drums on this release are programmed; if not, they’re heavily triggered, perhaps the result of an electronic kit. Either way, they sound excellent, with a more extreme, sharp edge helping to distance Defecation from Napalm Death. Gone are the attempts at low vocals, replaced entirely with high, grating crust/grind screams, which works amazingly to the album’s benefit. The low vocals were a big hit against ‘Purity Dilution’, but that problem is entirely fixed on this release, and the new vocals, despite their uniformity of performance, never get boring. The music does still heavily resemble mid-era Napalm Death, but enough has been added to prevent the formula from being as stale as it was on the first album. ‘Intention Surpassed’ is a full-fledged death/grind/crust/thrash album, and despite this wide array of influences, the result is entirely coherent. The improved clarity of modern production has given each instrumental voice a fast, clean, and extremely aggressive tone, which is a great way to represent the myriad of riffs on this release. These riffs range from simple crust/grind three-chord strums that one would hear on a Disfear 7″ to more convoluted death metal riffs that resemble a mixture of Morbid Angel circa ‘Covenant’ and ‘Harmony Corruption’-era Napalm Death. No matter what the style, each is catchy, memorable, and placed extremely well within the song. The structures of those songs hold a simple elegance that one finds in some of the best extreme metal; it’s poppy without being too predictable, looping back on itself after appropriate stretches of repetition, and never gets tired or changes for the sake of changing. This is not a strictly necessary album as it adds little to death/grind in general; it’s merely very well executed. However, for those who enjoy oldschool death/grind, there’s little out there that does it as consistently well as this album. You can safely ignore ‘Purity Dilution’, but this one demands attention from extreme metal fans looking for something with the quality of first-tier acts without the popularity. It’s very good and I wonder if it’ll be another fourteen years before the next one.

Track listing:
1. Continuum
2. Wordly Whys
3. Fibre Optical Illusion
4. Fever Pitch
5. 2/3 Pure
6. Under Surveilance
7. Cryonically Preserved
8. Ove
9. Protective Rage
10. Granted Wish
11. Shortfall
12. Incline
13. Time Folding Machine