DEFECT DESIGNER
DEFECT DESIGNER “Chitin”
By Dr. Abner Mality
I remember being dumbfounded by this Norwegian band’s last record “Neanderthal”, which cooked up an amazingly eccentric approach to grindcore unlike anything I’d heard before. Now I have before me “Chitin”...have DEFECT DESIGNER streamlined or smoothed out their unpredictable sound?
Have they, hell. Take a look at song titles like “Certainty After the Kafkaesque Twist”, “Gaudy Colors From Your Plastic Bag” and “Story of a Styrofoam” and you will see just how “mainstream” this is. If anything, there are even more twists and diverse musical genres blended into their already whacky pastiche of ever shifting grind and death metal. I’m reminded somewhat of a more modern version of the classic DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, but DEFECT DESIGNER are more grinding, more dissonant and dare I say it, stranger? Yet somehow they manage to make it not only listenable, but often catchy as hell.
It would be extremely tedious to break down each song because there’s so much going on. The early part of the album seems out to crush with the more overtly deathgrind approach, even though it’s strange enough with touches of VOI VOD, MESHUGGAH and DEMILICH. Things get progressively weirder with jazz and prog touches mixed into the crushing riffs. Bjorn Strid of SOILWORK shows up to lend appealing clean vocals to “Shine Shine”, probably the most accessible cut here. There’s stand up jazz bass all over “Story of a Styrofoam” which makes me feel like grabbing some bongos and a beatnik beret. The most intriguing tunes to me are the ever-morphing “We Prescribe” and the sludgy, doomy miasma of “Insomnia”. But somehow all the album all hangs together and gives you the feeling of a journey through a surreal domain. “Neanderthal” also produced this kind of vibe, but it’s even more pronounced on “Chitin”.
With this album, DEFECT DESIGNER have cemented their place as one of the most original extreme metal bands on the planet.