I feel bad for Iniquitous Savagery. Depending on the year, I could have seen their recent album Edifice of Vicissitudes be worthy of a spot among my honorable mentions or even the lower spots on my list. But context matters, and a review is always on a sliding scale. Iniquitous Savagery came out the same day as Defeated Sanity‘s newest platter of brutality and technicality, and there is no way you are beating Defeated Sanity in their own game. I knew Chronicles of Lunacy would be good and it led to me almost being resigned to it — I was not excited or looking forward to it, I simply accepted that it would be good. I did not expect it to be a milestone in its own genre, pushing all the elements that the band had been working on and by result their own genre to new heights.
I do not need to tell you that Chronicles of Lunacy is an album of high technical skill, but the ways in how the band finds new ways to push that technicality is still admirable. I can not recall when I last saw a band focus so much around a drum performance. The fluid drum approach of Lille Gruber showcases his jazzy past much more so than in the past and the drums morph from a leading instrument, to a supporting instrument, to an outright solo instrument at times and they do it so fluidly and effortlessly that, no matter how tricky the metric modulations become, no matter which notes Lille chooses to highlight, the groove never gets lost. Guitars will explore everything the genre has to offer, from slams, to finicky single notes lines to dissonant chord-work and yet, Gruber will find a way to outshine them. Sections that could sound pedestrian or predictable become works of art in the hands of these musicians, as the band finds ways to make even the most stereotypical section novel and unexpected. This is all amplified by how organic the drums sound. I recall Gruber saying that he does not use drum triggers, and I would be inclined to believe him as the snare sound in particular has a level of nuance unknown in extreme metal to it. We get the classic pong snare, sure, but also light, ghost-note heavy snare work that would be more at home on a fusion or funk record. Its not all about speed, either. “Extrinsically Enraged”, for example, shows how creative the band can be at tempos that do not dictate aggressive blasting and the confessor-isms in the drum performance of “A Patriarchy Perverse” are as unusual as they are welcome.
It is rare that music surprises me nowadays, and even rarer that a genre I come to particularly for its soothing simplicity and aggression does so. As it stands right now, Defeated Sanity is my album of the year — and the year is not for much longer.
