SANGUISUGABOGG - Pornographic Seizures (Review)

While many of you are likely aware of the plague pit we keep out back here at the Sleeping Village, a better kept secret is our vomit pit. That's where we go when the going gets...gross. Luckily, Pornographic Seizures, the debut from Ohio's nigh unpronounceable Sanguisugabogg, comes with an appropriate warning on the label: "we are not responsible for any instantaneous vomiting upon listening." Thanks, guys. Long story short, we made it out to the aforementioned vomit pit prior to hitting play on this 4-track grotesquerie , and everyone is for the better because of it. 
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Pornographic Seizures is just that: gross. Obviously. And in that spirit, as is the case of most metal of this variety, it's a bit of a race to see how many negative words I can attribute in a positive light.

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Filthy. Putrid. Vile. Disgusting. Shat from the slime-ridden bowels of hell. You can see where I'm going with this: in short, Pornographic Seizures makes one want to explosively surrender the contents of their bowels. And so on. When you take caveman riffs and throw them in the arena with a tight snare, assertive cymbals, and sopping wet gutturals, the result is as massive as you might assume. This is a well-conceived mix of OSDM's blatant aggression, death doom's gloom-ridden atmospherics, and the pulverized-by-wet-concrete application of slam-worth vocal delivery. In the band's words, down-tuned drug death. In any case, it's a filthy/putrid/vile/disgusting mix. 

Particularly impressive is the tendency to shift the tempo up or down at a moment's notice, best exemplified on closer "Succulent Decedent." My highlight track, however, would have to be "Perverse/Deranged," which cleverly utilizes the drums to a point most death metal outfits would never consider. For a good chunk of this trick, hammering snare and intriguing fills lead the way--a refreshing change from the riff-centric approach we've come to expect from genre convention. For all the blood and guts strewn about, the instrumentation is relentlessly tight across the board, resembling surgery at the hands of a trained professional, rather than the hands of a chisel-wielding lumberjack. Not to say there isn't a certain lumbering element, so to speak, on the brief-but-hefty "Uningest" and "Turkish Blood Orgy," both of which lean into the thunderous riffage.

At 11 minutes, this release is short, (if not necessarily sweet.) While I've seen some listeners critical of the short length, this particular scribe frankly can't imagine Pornographic Seizures being much longer. I only have so many fluids to expel before I'm little more than a withered husk. Death metal of this visceral variety operates best on the small stage, and here, Sanguisugabogg deliver the goods. Also of note is the production, which, while lo-fi, highlights the best elements with a surprising grace. Unlike their Maggot Stomp labelmates Encoffinized, for example, Sanguisugabogg feels immediately present and accounted for. It's a dynamic mix, no doubt.

Do the 4 tracks herein, tracks, in all their grimy glory, start to bleed into each other? Yeah. But do I give a damn? No, dear readers. Not in the goddamn slightest. If you're coming to Sanguisugabogg for reasons other than immersing yourself in assorted viscera and bodily fluids, methinks you aren't here for the right reasons at all. If, however, you're in the mood to wretch up your intestines, Pornographic Seizures comes highly recommended. 

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