Where do you even start with a band like Defect Designer? Part Trollfest, part Diskord—one fewer part now that bassist Eyvind Wærsted Axelsen has moved on since his brief participation on 2022’s blasting EP Neanderthal—and three parts weird, this eclectic Russian-by-way-of-Norway export hasn’t defined one singular sound for itself over the years. Full-length debut Wax showcased their would-be trademark of wildly bouncing riffs and pulse-hopping bass runs against an of-the-time mid-00s groovy Morbid Angel death metal that felt like it could have fit on a bill with Terra Incognita-era Gojira—except it was 2009! 2015’s Ageing Accelerator saw an injection of Cryptopsy punch enlisting the legendary Flo Mounier himself to add a kit smattering across the extra carnival synth embellished and hard-to-love sophomore outing. However, trimmed to grind lengths and with the quirky musical spirit of Diskord emboldened, Neanderthal proved to be less prehistoric and more fresh in attack than any of their past efforts, a true progression. Now with a fresh coat of Chitin, does Defect Designer threaten to strike hot again?
Before we get into the music that this newest effort presents, we can’t pass the most obvious link between the spirit of Neanderthal and Chitin: that glorious, intricately crosshatched Ian Miller artwork. Every buggy, creepy cornstalk; every sneering, veiny pillar; every paisley-mouthed demon spewing from the warped manor that houses Defect Designers’ unsettling thoughts, this cover continues the off-kilter, funhouse aesthetic into which this ensemble has slowly settled. With a scratchy, sliding scrawl, Defect Designer carves through many of Chitin’s twisted numbers a tense riffcraft that falls in line with skronk-bearing grind acts like Antigama or Atka, and its funkier bass-pop predilection also reminds me of the seemingly similar-minded underground groove of the recent Arthouse Fatso release. But rather than find a uniting, quirky lyrical theme, Defect Designer simply aims to tie together the room with referential tones and an insistence on remaining strange.
The problem, though, with valuing weirdness above all else is that Chitin, outside of pushing its image to a breaking point, does very little to hook the listener in that lane, at least not right away. Defect Designer leads with high crunch, wide-focus riffs, which struggle to leave a mark across the front half of Chitin. As sonically thrilling as many of the buzzing intros are, these kinds squirmy footings largely render as a blur in high doses, that is until the extra-torqued grind of “Certainty After the Kafkaesque Twist” and the slower escalation of “Gaudy Colors from Your Plastic Bag.” Ironically, the tangling of these two cuts highlights both how out-of-place Björn Strid’s Night Flight Orchestra intrusion on “Shine Shine” rests against all else, as it does exactly what the song implies. Glaring, garish, galloping, it kind of works, like a dark chocolate spread on a spicy wedge of salami.
Reaching back into the rhythmic oddities that carved the most vicious edges of Neanderthal, it’s the closing quartet that really brings home what makes modern Defect Designer work. Session smasher Eugene Ryabchenko (Fleshgod Apocalypse,1 Burial Hordes2) sprinkles in jazz club cymbal walks (“Story of a Styrofoam”), circus folk pomp (“Nu, Pogodi!”), all while striking back down to a crashing groove (“Insomnia”) or pummeling death metal assault (“Orgone Accumulator”). These cuts don’t feel entirely like a different band, but the writing focus on them builds around rhythm instead of in spite of it, allowing the tricky six-string work to find a home amongst more defined swells and splits. A few earlier hits come close to this kind of cohesion, but with the intro of “Uglification Spell” setting the tone early with a hard multi-second pause that stutters the album’s first strut, Chitin does not set itself up for a flowing success.
Despite its flaws, though, Chitin remains fun and forward-moving in its forty-minute run. Unlike other bands that tip-toe about the progressive moniker with flashy time changes and virtuosic squealing, Defect Designer wears its technical prowess to steer the audience around its misdirecting halls and trap doors. While the path that these devious death metallers take poses its own hurdles, Defect Designer stumbles about with full commitment to an outré attitude with a refreshing honesty. Sure, it’s taken them three full-lengths and an EP to really nail down what that means, but that leaves the future looking bright, still, for Defect Designer. Bright and weird.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity | Bandcamp
Websites: defect-designer.com | facebook.com/defectdesigner1 | defect-designer.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 15th, 2024
