Review by Daniel for Sanguisugabogg - Homicidal Ecstasy (2023)

Ridiculously monikered Ohio-based death metallers Sanguisugabogg (Latin for blood-sucking toilet) first entered my world back in 2019 through their debut “Pornographic Seizures” E.P. which I had a bit of time for to be honest. Unfortunately, I lost some of that initial interest following their 2021 debut full-length “Tortured Whole” which seemed to receive a whole bunch of hype but, in reality, didn’t offer a lot in the way of substance. 2023 has seen the band redeeming themselves to an extent though with their brand new sophomore album “Homicidal Ecstasy” seeing Sanguisugabogg hitting on enough quality riffs & grooves to keep my body moving & my face smiling.

You see, a band like Sanguisugbogg isn’t meant to be taken too seriously & the comments I made about their debut album are perhaps defeating the purpose because I’m not sure it was ever the band’s intent to create a package that required much in the way of in-depth thought. I’ve made no secret about my preference for a more serious brand of extreme metal so it ironically takes me a fair amount of effort to come around to bands that focus on simply having a bit of fun. Thankfully that effort has proven to be worth it on this occasion though with “Homicidal Ecstasy” utilizing a lovely thick production & some very tight (if simple) performances to create a chunky set of death metal anthems that are made for live performance.

Strangely, “Homicidal Ecstasy” seems to be being tagging as a brutal/slam death metal release which is entirely inaccurate in my opinion. I can see why people are being fooling into going that way as Sanguisugabogg certainly utilize a lot of heavily palm-muted & mid-tempo death metal riffs that aren’t too dissimilar to those used by most slam death metal bands in their breakdowns. Also, the use of a horribly pingy snare drum sound is one of the signature tools in slam so I can kinda understand the casual listener going down that path. The clear differentiator though is the distinct lack of brutality because Sangisugabogg don’t make much of an effort to savage the listener into oblivion, instead looking to hit on a fun & catchy groove metal riff or create a bouncy beatdown rhythm that’ll no doubt have the masses swarming across the dancefloor in violent worship.

There’s still not a lot of substance here it has to be said & I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to that absence presenting somewhat of a challenge for me. In fact, in many ways “Homicidal Ecstasy” sounds a lot like what you always wished Six Feet Under might sound like but don’t take that as a bad thing because, while Sanguisugabogg may not challenge you from a brutality or a technicality point of view, they more than make up for it in their execution which sees them sitting fairly comfortably alongside other modern death metal bands like 200 Stab Wounds, Frozen Soul & Fulci.