Band:	Sanguisugabogg
Album:	Homicidal Ecstasy
Style:	Deathgrind, Brutal death metal
Release date:	February 2023

01. Black Market Vasectomy
02. Face Ripped Off [feat. Aaron Heard]
03. Pissed
04. Testicular Rot
05. Hungry For Your Insides
06. Skin Cushion
07. A Lesson In Savagery
08. Narcissistic Incisions
09. Mortal Admonishment
10. Proclamation Of The Frail
11. Necrosexual Deviant
12. Feening For Bloodshed

The funny brutal death metal band are getting slightly more serious.

Sanguisugabogg's swift rise to fame was a pretty site to observe. We've been covering them since including Pornographic Seizures in one of our Clandestine Cuts editions and few would've thought that the band would be signed to Century Media Records for the next record. Tortured Whole came and went, I liked it enough for how meat and potatoes it was, but I appreciated that its 30 minutes runtime and the band's lack of experience made it not overstay its welcome. Now Homicidal Ecstasy sees the band a bit less interested in the silliness of brutal death metal, but also trying to push their sound for the 45 minutes runtime, meaning that the album must be a bit more mature, right?

There is a clear increase in songwriting quality from Tortured Whole to Homicidal Ecstasy, not a huge one, but there's more moments that feel like they deviate from the meat and potatoes standard than before, even if the deviations are pretty minute. There's bits that feel like they lean towards hardcore (creating the much maligned blend called deathcore) while the paces can create interesting moments when varying. I don't think that increase in quality is able to keep the sound interesting for how the runtimes have also increased. For the most part, the sound of Sanguisugabogg is still simple riffs and low gurgly vocals. Either you like that or you don't.

I do appreciate that the band managed to keep their covers abstract even while moving away from something gore-inspired to create something pretty baffling, plus getting a guest vocal spot from Jesus Piece's Aaron Heard is pretty legit. Supposedly lyrically there's been also a shift from purely gore-focused lyrics, but who the hell reads brutal death metal lyrics. In the end what impressed me most about Homicidal Ecstasy is that the drummer definitely outperforms everyone on the record, and even in the more straight-forward moments, it's the drums that excite me the most. In my last review, I mentioned that the band "need[s] to find an aspect of their sound to amp up by the time their charm wears off". Homicidal Ecstasy delayed that a little bit, but I also can't say that I'm overly excited for a new Sanguisugabogg record.

There's a bit more salt and pepper on the meat and potatoes this time around, but it's still just meat and potatoes.