As with most of the Japanese death metal scene, Defiled have always looked abroad for inspiration, and to the US specifically.
Hiring Broken Hope’s Brian Griffin to produce their 1999 debut and Jim Morris from Morrisound Studio to mix almost all their albums, they reached a high point with the tech-death fest that was 2011’s In Crisis.
So why they chose get rid of their stellar bass player, Haruhisa Takahata, and change direction on almost every level is anyone’s guess, but it comes at high cost. Sonically, …Ruin sounds so thin that you can’t help but wonder if someone hasn’t brought the mastering demo version – with no bass, drums reduced to the snare and one cymbal, and a guitar with hardly any crunch – instead of the ‘real’ album. And reduced to two-and-a-half minute nuggets that sometimes trail off abruptly, their music now clumsily tries to follow a way more chaotic and thrashy path but without the firepower nor the clear vision required. Epic fail.
