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SANGUISUGABOGG
Hideous Aftermath

Century Media (2025)
Rating: 7/10

Another album of slobbering grind is upon us as Ohio’s Sanguisugabogg slithers back into the recording studio to cough this cyst up. Hideous Aftermath is a bit of a strange one though because while previous efforts were beer-soaked bludgeoning marrying death metal, slam and hardcore, this one feels and sounds more serious. What’s wrong with that, I hear you ask? Well, the crusty combo seems to have lost its edge of buffoonery as generic slabs of death metal are created instead, where the likes of ‘Sanctified Defilement’ and ‘Erotic Beheading’ exist as meat n’ potatoes stodge.

I guess I should be thankful for such pleasures as my ears and slam / hardcore have never been friends. Even so, when the band does shift through the gears – all the while maintaining some seriously heavy riffs – it’s the doomy ‘Heinous Testimony’ which comes up trumps as a slice of pulverising doomcore (have I just invented a new subgenre?). There’s further variation with the blackened spine of ‘Felony Abuse Of A Corpse’ which also nods towards latter day Cannibal Corpse, while the full throttle death grind blitz emerges on ‘Semi Automatic Facial Reconstruction’.

The titles remain typically goofy, the riffs meatier than an abattoir and in general it’s a solid and extremely tight affair that will no doubt please the fans. I do like and appreciate the different approaches, particularly with ‘Repulsive Demise’ and its flirtations with a Godflesh-style of slog, and epic eight-minute closer ‘Paid In Flesh’ features a strong sprawling essence after starting out as a standard limp of death metal.

Don’t get me wrong, Hideous Aftermath is a good album, but I’ve never really enrolled in the Sanguisugabogg hype so for me this is not the essential experience despite its chugging thuggery.

Neil Arnold

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