The Japanese Metal scene started to get out of the country’s limits after acts as LOUDNESS, ANTHEM, BOW WOW (today BOW WOW G2), EARTHSHAKER, EZO and others earned worldwide recognition (even far from what they really deserved). But from a point of their history, the Japanese Metal scene started to breed extreme Metal bands in vast numbers. Today, to see an extreme Metal band from the lands of the Rising Sun isn’t something unexpected, but such words don’t defile the work of the Tokyo-based quartet DEFILED, a pioneer into Japanese Death Metal, here with its 8th full-length, “Horror Beyond Horror”.

It’s obvious that the quartet keeps its traditional Death Metal form of music, with clear references to Thrash Metal, Hardcore and Grindcore, so it’s the classic ways of playing Death Metal (remembering, they’re active since 1992, the main reason to keep things in such way), but with a very good technical level. But they have guts to do things on their own, making a form of music full of extreme blast beats, tons of energy and brutality in a way that’s easy to crack the tectonic plates of Kantō region and drown it into the sea! And they’re truly great, indeed, full of some lessons thy gathered throughout the years.

The production was done by the hands of Yusuke Sumita (the guitarist and sole original member of the quartet), with Shinichiro and Keisuke Hamada on the sound engineering (the vocalist/guitarist and the drummer of the band), and Kenji Kikuchi taking care of the mixing and mastering. The sonority is ‘dry’ (what’s usual for Thrash Metal acts), and everything sounds aggressive and nasty, but always in a defined way that allows the fans to understand what they’re playing. It could be a bit dirtier, but it’s very good, indeed. And the art of Wes Benscoter (BLACK SABBATH, CRYPTA, AMORPHIS, CATTLE DECAPITATION, BLOODBATH, DIO, CEPHALIC CARNAGE, VADER and others, and that works with the band since their first full-length) depicts clearly that the fans have a Death Metal release on their hands.

There are 14 onslaughts in musical form waiting to torn your ears to shreds here, but it’s amazing what they deliver on “Smoke and Mirrors” (a brutal song with many Grindcore fast blast beats contrasting with Hardcore parts, depicting s solid work on bass guitar and drums), “Horror Beyond Horror” (excellent rhythmic contrasts, enabling the guitars to depict killer riffs and sickened solos), “Syndicate” (where the use of some Thrash Metal-like moments in the middle of massacring blast beats is really catchy), “The Alchemy” (another moment filled with extreme Metal hooks and very good broken rhythms, and what great vocals, using a more snarled set of guttural tunes than low grunted ones), “Trojan Horse” (wow, what great double bass parts on the drums, and solid riff wall), “Spectrum of Fear” (a piledriving Death Metal song with many Hardcore/Grindcore hooks, and sharp vocals once more), “Replicator Dynamics” (the slow parts are extremely hard to resist ), “Equinox” (again a set of fast drumming and solid bass playing enabling the guitars to start a massive and heavy storm), and “To See Behind the Wall” is hard to Death Metal fans resist to.

“Horror Beyond Horror” is an honest and very good Death Metal release, showing that DEFILED still has a lot to offer to extreme Metal fans.