UMUR "Towards Inevitable Ruin" is the 5th full-length studio album by Japanese, Tokyo based death metal act Defiled. The album was released through Season of Mist in July 2016. It´s been five years since the release of "In Crisis (2011)", but Defiled have seen quite a few lineup changes in those years, and guitarist Yusuke Sumita is the only member left from the lineup who recorded the predecessor. New in the lineup are Shinichiro Hamada (vocals, guitars), Hiroaki Sato (bass), and Keisuke Hamada (drums).

"In Crisis (2011)" was a pretty unique sounding brutal technical death metal album, featuring an unconventional sounding production. "Towards Inevitable Ruin" continues that tradition and again firmly places Defiled among the most distinct sounding and bold artists on that part of the death metal scene. And that´s not because they add avant garde elements or progressive ideas to their music. They experiment within the boundaries of the genre, which is often more difficult but ultimately also more elegant.

The change on the bass player position has a big impact on the band´s sound. The technical fusion styled bass playing of Haruhisa Takahata, was one of the defining elements of "In Crisis (2011)", but Hiroaki Sato has a more "regular" bass playing style. Initially I thought that would be a great loss, but somehow Defiled have found a way to work around the loss of the very busy basslines of Takahata. The music on "Towards Inevitable Ruin" simply doesn´t suffer from it, because Defiled have successfully moved focus to other parts of their music.

The music on the 12 track, 30:27 minutes long album is early 90s influenced death metal. At times it´s quite technical but other times the band play some delightfully old school hardcore punked death metal parts, and it´s all delivered with great energy and organic playing. The vocals are one-dimensionally growling, but Shinichiro Hamada has a powerful raw delivery, which suits the music well. It´s all packed in a rather unique sounding production, that might take some getting used to. Upon initial listen I found it pretty noisy, messy, and chaotic sounding (and slightly amaturish too), but giving the album more spins it all fell into place, and now I can´t imagine the music without this sound and visa versa. It´s probably an aquired taste though, and listeners who who usually prefer their technical brutal death metal with a more clear clinical sounding production, this sound production may come as a bit of a shock.

The musicianship is strong on all posts and the many brutal riffs and growling vocals are complimented well by the organic playing rhythm section. Especially drummer Keisuke Hamada deserves a mention for his wild playing and semi-improvised style. Sometimes it sounds like he is making his rhythm patterns and fills up on the spot, and that approach provides the music with great authenticity and organic energy. So upon conclusion "Towards Inevitable Ruin" is a relatively unique sounding death metal release. Defiled´s anarchistic and greatly creative approach to the genre is admirable and makes them stand out on a scene which is over populated by unremarkable artists who wouldn´t know the meaning of the word "original" even if it came up and bit them in the ass. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.