In just six years since the band’s formation, Sanguisugabogg has amassed a considerable, loyal, and globally reaching fanbase. Whilst being a somewhat divisive act amongst fans of modern extreme music, attracting both hefty praise and frequent critical scorn for the strange, almost tongue in cheek humour that permeates their particular brand of brutality. Affectionately referred to as ‘The Bogg’ by their fans, these Ohio natives have undeniably cemented themselves as one of the most high-profile modern Death Metal bands active today. ‘Hideous Aftermath’ marks the band’s third full-length outing and demonstrates a significant stylistic shift when compared to the looser, grimy corrosive sludgyness of the previous two albums. For all of their notoriety and adoring fans, The Bogg is a band that I have personally never really gelled with. That isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy the clearly meritorious elements of the absurdist bombast-meets-violent disgust displayed on their past albums. They just simply haven’t floored me in the way many of their contemporaries have. I’m glad to say then, that ‘Hideous Aftermath’ has played a deft hand in winning me over to this deranged act.
The run-up to this album’s release was preceded with some of the heaviest and most memorably catchy singles I’ve heard all year. The track ‘Abhorrent Contraception’ being the lead single is a song that I have had in regular rotation for the past few months. Upon first listening, it was clear to me that The Bogg were intentionally driving their large rusty truck full of nuclear waste down a different musical highway. The track features tighter playing than on previous Bogg material and a refined and more focused sense of groove with Devin Swank’s savage anthemic howls leading the charge. I love the switch up in the second half of the track with a bouncy guitar riff that feels purely inspired by the doctrines of New York Death Metal and the serial killer vocal snippet that takes centre stage before the entire band enforces a brain splattering breakdown to close out the song. Another single that caught my attention was ‘Repulsive Demise’ with its metallic and clockwork-like rhythmic backbone. Whilst heavy in its own right, Repulsive Demise sounds intentionally hushed and muffled and feels like the soundtrack to you being hungrily stalked by a disgusting, multi-limbed and bloodthirsty monstrosity.
Far from a release that is carried by the strength of its singles, however, many of the deeper cuts display thrilling performances from a very impressive list of artists making guest appearances on the songs. Track two, entitled: ‘Felony Abuse of A Corpse’ pulverises the listener with its very staccato and simple momentum. Towards the close of the track, the throttling instrumentation slows before introducing the subterranean gurgled vocal oration of Damonteal Harris from the US Slam Metal purveyors PeelingFlesh. The penultimate track ‘Semi Automatic Facial Reconstruction’ features the trademark zombie-like wretch of the legendary Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation fame. His vocals are performed as a blistering duet alongside Swank’s. The instrumentation of the song is considerably more frantic and less rooted in a solid simplistic rhythmic pulse than on all the other songs on the album, the drums and bass are much less restrained and the song even feels slightly Pig Destroyer-esque. It marks a necessary change of pace amongst the intentional rigidity of the album’s style.
It is no secret that as an artist’s career matures, they naturally would want to appeal to new fans. This is often a tricky balancing act to successfully nail whilst simultaneously staying true to the traits that made you great in the first place. With this new focus on tighter playing, relentless full band groove and cutthroat bluntness displayed on ‘Hideous Aftermath’, Sanguisugabogg has evolved whilst never leaving their familiar absurdist weirdness to gather dust, and in doing so have released their best project yet.
