It has been a death metal kind of week in the Metal V house. I’ve been listening to some killer old-school releases such as Legion by the mighty Deicide and Obituary’s near faultless World Demise. On top of those, I got my ears a dose of the amazing new release, Red Before Black, from the skull-crushing entity that is Cannibal Corpse, and many more other brutal beauties. But what I am here to talk about presently is the absolutely ear-splitting and body-pummeling, Thy Ungodly Defiance by Italy’s Daemusinem.
Nine songs of sheer death metal perfection in one concise, spine-smashing package. Having had a bit of a binge on a few early Deicide albums this week, I was always a little disappointed that on all of their albums, there was only ever one or two, maybe three start-to-finish killer songs. They have the ability to do it but just always fell short, in my honest opinion. But gratefully, and not too late, Daemusinem have stepped in to deliver what some others could not. An album so blasphemously perfect you’ll wonder how death metal did without it for so long. Thy Ungodly Defiance is a concept album of sorts based on Fra Dolcino, a heretic preacher who lived in northern Italy during the 13th century, and was tortured and burnt at the stake by the Inquisition. Just as the Inquisition were with their unrelenting and unscrupulous desires to take and kill any who opposed them, the same could truly be said for these brutal Italians.
From start-to-finish, just as the martyrs are nailed to a cross, the listeners embarking on this Thy Ungodly Defiance will absolutely be confronted with a barbarity that is as crushing as it is as soothing as immolation for repentance. Death metal majesty is how I’d would summarise Daemusinem’s Thy Ungodly Defiance. The songs are magnificently structured, without being overindulgent or over complicated (as far as death metal can’t be anyway). This album is unrepentant in its purpose of brutally delivering a sermon of extreme death metal evil as it purely hammers away at us, the listeners, for attention and keeping our focus for the duration of each and every awesome song. As their album bio states, I honestly must agree that Thy Ungodly Defiance is a true testament of all things death metal, and an album that will stand the test of time after humanity’s inevitable extinction.
