In these dark times when every new Death Metal band seems to take the same route – Suffocation plus Hardcore – and the genuinely original get washed away by a tidal wave of here-today-gone-tomorrow one-grunt-wonders, it’s something of a mixed blessing to discover a band that instead of striking out for new territory goes back over what has been done - but does it very well indeed. Within moments of starting Psalms Of The Moribund, the second album from this German five-piece, you’ll be checking to make sure you haven’t put some early Suffocation in by mistake. It’s practically an homage to New York Death Metal, yet far from being a pale imitation this is almost better than the legends themselves!

As you’d expect from a band formed in 1994, Defeated Sanity has honed its art to a razor’s edge, and Psalms Of The Moribund is a future classic of the Brutal Death Metal genre, a sludgy downpour of crushing filth that will leave you dazed. Not for these guys the screechy vocals and melodic solos of others, oh no. This is pure, downtuned, bass-ridden brutality, completely without pretension and sure to incur the hatred of the faint-hearted and Arch Enemy fans. Each and every song (of course, they’re called things like Fatal Self-Inflicted Disfigurement and Arousal Through Punishment) is a twisty, technical storm of riffs and blasts that will leave fans of the genre in an orgasmic state. It’s the embodiment of single-mindedness in a musical form – if you’re not the type of person that normally listens to this sort of thing, then seriously, don’t even bother trying unless you’re in a particularly murderous mood.

Apart from the occasional Jazzy break, like at the end of Engorged With Humiliation, there’s little to distinguish songs (or serial-killing hellslabs of brutal mindstabbing hatred, as the correct term is) from each other. Interesting choice of album title, too; as much as this style may be rooted in the nineties, let’s hope that it isn’t moribund at all. As long as bands like this are still singing (growling, grunting, etc) its praises the style will still be around for years to come. Think of it as the aural opposite to Power Metal: the blunt, streetwise drug dealer as opposed to the introverted, optimistic fantasist. Not, at the end of the day, a very nice person to know, but a totem of absolute depravity that is always good for a drink. You know what you’ll get with this band – question is, is it what you want?