I started listening to this album heavily a couple of weeks ago. Then I wanted to see "28 Days Later" movie by Danny Boyle. Well, these times are bad, and suitable music now is death metal/grindcore, eh?! Desensitised hailed from Netherlands and put out one demo, an EP, a split and this, their sole full-length album.

I recall I got this for a very cheap price on some sale a couple of years ago. People really haven't found this band, because this CD is limited to 2000 copies. Guitarist Susan Gerl played in God Dethroned, even though not on their albums, and GD are one of my favourite bands from Holland (from the beginning of 2020 they want to call their land as Netherlands, not Holland anymore; sorry, an old habit!!!), and it made me want to try the band when I saw this album in a webshop. The cover art certainly didn't; it's such a mess. 'Virus of Violence' includes 13 songs, that are all under 2-3 minutes long except for the closer.

I've heard bad short grindcore songs and albums, but 'Virus of Violence' is a potent and impetuous piece of force. Hacking riffing together with blast beats, ominous sounding death metal parts, and rocking punky beats paired with more loose guitar playing are biggest traits in Desensitised's songsmith. Then there's occasionally this black-ish death metal style happening, that really reminds me about God Dethroned circa 1999-2001; the song 'Introspective Exploration' is particularly a good example of this. Composition-wise, the band usually go twice through every part in a song, except for guitar solos of course and a couple of exceptions (like that weird rock part in 'Foetus in Fetu'). Okay, so the songs are about twice as long as typically in grindcore... They do repeat themselves at times, and some of the riffs are kind of annoying, so it's far from perfect, but still it is generally listenable and almost always at least okay.

The vocals consist of two voices. One of them is rather guttural growl, and the other is more high-pitched rabid bark. They take turns, or are heard simultaneously. I bet Carcass was the influence there, then, but they certainly aren't similar. They certainly aren't incomprehensible either. I wonder if Susan is performing the low growls... The lyrics inspect real world's hardship, be it sickness, religion, politics... Not the most typical way, though: "Rockets filled with lethal gas, laser-guided towards the mass, fuck resolving the impasse, negotiations up the ass." Yeah, comedy at times, but so is life...

Sound-wise this is pretty dry. It's in vein of Grave's 'Soulless' from 12 years earlier, but without the Swedish, or more like Stockholm-ish, flair. The snare sounds tight and snappy, and the guitars have pretty damn rusty tone into them. It is loud for sure! And if you are looking for some loud death metal/grindcore, here's a good album for you.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
04/14/2020 14:55