UMUR
"Ugliness Revealed" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Japanese death metal act Defiled. The album was released through Baphomet Records in October 2001. It´s the successor to "Erupted Wrath" from 1999 and was recorded by the same four-piece lineup who recorded the predecessor. Although it happens more and more often that Japanese artists break through in Europe and the US it´s still a bit exotic to us (who come from those parts of the world), when it happens. Defiled are of course an underground act (the kind of music they play isn´t reaching a mainstream audience anytime soon), but they are often mentioned as a highly respected one on the international brutal technical death metal scene...
...and there´s a reason why that is. Upon initial listens "Ugliness Revealed" sounds like a lot of other chaotic sounding ultra brutal technical death metal releases, but digging a bit deeper into the details of the album, it soon becomes apparent that Defiled are unconventional and determined to do things their own way. The music features deep growling vocals, loads of abrupt tempo changes and breaks, dissonance, and a feral energi level which is quite charming. Defiled can go from a slow doomy pace, to a D-beat punked like death metal section, to playing ultra fast blastbeats in a matter of seconds (throw in some Voivod influenced dissonance and you´re halfway there). It´s not easily accessible music, and it personally took me quite a while to learn to appreciate. But it´s definitely a case of patience being rewarded.
"Ugliness Revealed" features a raw and organic sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. A more clean and sterile sound production wouldn´t have fit the material at all, and would probably have ruined the old school authenticity and raw nature of the music.
It´s the combination of the occasional old school simplicity and frenetic technical playing, which works so well for Defiled. They understand how effectful a sustained power chord or a simple D-beat type rhythm can be amidst the chaos of breaks, tempo changes, dissonance, and odd time signatures, and they use that understanding to incorporate hooks here and there (...well "hooks" is a relative term in music this brutal, so let´s just say catchy moments).
"Ugliness Revealed" features nothing but high quality tracks, but I´d like to mention a few highlights in "Uncovered Plots", which features a deranged dissonant intro riff, and "Disguised", which is the most "normal" death metal track on the album. Upon conclusion "Ugliness Revealed" is probably very much an aquired taste. If you have a low threshold for stress, the almost constant shifts in rhythms and tempo changes and the abrasive nature of the music, will probably send you screaming into an anxiety attack, but to those who can appreciate an almost mathcore approach to brutal technical death metal, "Ugliness Revealed" is your poison. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.