Defiled isn’t done with us yet.
Active in Japan for over thirty years, the band led by Yusuke Sumita (guitar), Keisuke Hamada (drums, ex-Chernoblank), Shinichiro Hamada (guitar/vocals, ex-Chernoblank), and Takachika Nakajima (bass, ex-Coven Japan) released their ninth album, Altered State, in 2026, still under the label Season of Mist.
The band kicks things off at a brisk pace with Dazed in Blindness, an aggressive opener featuring fairly consistent blast beats that doesn’t shy away from throwing in a few accelerations and more intricate sections for the rest of the band while the vocalist roars. Effectiveness goes hand in hand with the technicality of the leads, and it’s with the title track Altered State that the band continues its assault, offering here an Old School touch that’s as heady as it is abrasive to great effect, even granting us very brief moments of respite before moving on to the groovy Obsession, which offers its jerky and catchy rhythm. It’s easy to get swept up in the momentum, but like the last two tracks, this one is fairly short, giving way to the dissonant Portal, a composition that’s strangely more accessible, though it retains Death Metal’s fury while injecting more diverse influences. Unbridled violence returns with Necro-Force, a track that shifts between waves of raw fury and sections leaning more toward Progressive Death Metal, featuring unexpected yet highly engaging patterns, then The Degradation continues in the same vein, offering an explosive edge and intriguing waves of Death/Thrash to explore. Genocidal Stage maintains this contagious aggression and even offers a few unifying passages undoubtedly intended for future live shows, then the band strikes next with Metamorphosis of Evil, blending very raw passages with some much more melodic ones, in contrast to The Ultra Death, which hammers us with oppressive harmonics alongside its heavy rhythm section. A new, fairly fast but aggressive and jerky assault on Zombified, a relatively simple track where the band unleashes its strengths at a brisk pace, and at times we almost approach Grindcore, just as on Lunatics, which offers us regular bursts of violence and patterns that are as surprising as can be. The track is a bit longer, however, even featuring a solo before the final that leads into Prophecies, where the band is sure to get the crowd moving, and then there’s a vengeful touch borrowed from Hardcore on Demolition. Once again, the track has all the elements to get the pit moving, especially during the groovy mosh part, but the album is already drawing to a close with Apocalyptic End, the fourteenth track that brings this new chapter to a spectacular close while giving us plenty to headbang to thanks to its powerful and catchy riffs.
This new album confirms that Defiled’s consistency goes hand in hand with quality, as Altered State remains cohesive and powerful from start to finish, exploring various influences while obviously maintaining its Death Metal foundation to win us over – and it’s a success.
85/100