Band:	Sanguisugabogg
Album:	Tortured Whole
Style:	Deathgrind, Brutal death metal
Release date:	March 26, 2021
A review by:	RaduP

01. Menstrual Envy
02. Gored In The Chest
03. Dragged By A Truck
04. Pornographic
05. Dead As Shit
06. Tortured Whole
07. Interlube
08. Dick Filet
09. Urinary Ichor
10. Posthumous Compersion
11. Felching Filth

It's the funny brutal death metal band!

It seems that one of our Clandestine Cut editions, particularly the Vol. 9 Issue #12 one, has become home to a lot of acts that have since released successful debuts: Lamp Of Murmuur, Undeath and Crypts. We have yet to hear from Exomnia and Chat Pile, but Sanguisugabogg have now joined the ranks of debut-full-length-releasers. And considering that the band go signed to Century Media for the release of this album, that's a pretty indication that there's something either unique or commercially feasible about their sound.

Me and brutal death metal have a sort of love and hate relationship. Or maybe that's an exaggeration. More like I now finally understand the appeal of it, even if I don't always go out of my own way to listen to it. But I generally prefer it that if a band goes for a brutal death metal sound, they should go all in on one aspect of it, either the technicality, the innovation, or something like sheer brutality or a sense of filthy atmosphere. Sanguisugabogg mostly capitalize on a more old-school sound, but also bring forth just how ridiculous the sound is.

Being just 33 minutes in length, which I consider just about the perfect length for this type of music, Tortured Whole is far from the most technical, most brutal, most innovative, or even most ridiculous brutal death metal out there. It seems like the slight sense of gimmick might have more to do with their success than the music itself, which is made worse by the huge amount of apparel the band released previously. But the riffs are slamming, the vocals gurgle, and those snares sound deliciously atrocious. It's the meat and potatoes, which I think will please people who want meat and potatoes and out of place synth interludes, but this is all you're gonna get. But brutal death metal connoisseurs might already be tired of just that, especially those not too keen of the added slam influences.

Kudos to Sanguisugabogg for capitalizing on this sound and making a very fun album with it, and it works for now, but I feel like they need to find an aspect of their sound to amp up by the time their charm wears off.