[Cover art by Ian Miller]
Here’s a one-image review of Chitin, the latest full length from Defect Designer:
Oh, do you require more information? Okie dokie. Here we go…
Defect Designer’s lineup has shifted considerably since their early days in Russia. Now based in Norway, they are simply the duo of bassist / vocalist Martin Storm-Olsen and vocalist / guitarist Dmitry “Mr. Scavenger” Sukhinin, the lone constant member and mastermind. Sukhinin is also currently in Norway’s weirdo skronk-death kings Diskord, and if you think that band gets a little out there, you’re in for a bit of eccentricity shock with this record.
In other words, Defect Designer’s death metal is definitely death metal but doesn’t necessarily appeal to listeners in typical death metal ways. Riffs are often constructed in a catchy manner but too dissonant or abrasive to be infectious to most ears, and at other times are incredibly spastic, rubbery, or both; the music is crazy technical but the overall feeling is often more of controlled chaos than actual tech metal; the drums, courtesy of guest Eugene Ryabchenko, blast over whatever seems apt at the time but just as often hit a straightforward drive that gives the album a punkier vibe; and the vocals range from deep gutturals to harsh screeches and everything in between, typically holding onto a good amount of the sass and personality that they share with the riffs.
The overall effect is heavy, zany, grindy, and positively bonkers. Thankfully it’s also frequently pretty great. Key tunes / moments ‒ if they can exist in an album so unpredictable ‒ include the fun shifts from a forceful, pounding drive and antagonistic noise / mathcore riffs to knuckle-dragging wallops in “Certainty After the Kafkaesque Twist” (plus brief moments of melodies and speed-picked heavy metal thunder); the almost straightforward blasting death metal and spaced out leads in “To Ziggurat” (plus a ton of bass and guitar ballet action); and the preposterously kooky and catchy-to-the-right-ears onslaught of “We Will Need Your Chitin” (plus both stop/start and slower passages that seem downright drunk). You get the point—no idea is safe from what is about to devour it, and Defect Designer positively refuses to ever sit still.
If the band’s core sound isn’t insane enough for you, buckle up. The album’s twists and turns are where Defect Designer really seems to either be indulging every idea in their brains ‒ for better and sometimes for worse ‒ or at least to be slightly taking the piss. (Some listeners will sense the urge to call this avant-garde, but the band probably doesn’t want to be taken so seriously.) First, there’s the expertly crafted but completely out-of-the-blue radio rock tune they did with Soilwork’s Björn Strid on vocals (“Shine Shine”). Not even the rough edges of Defect Designer’s riffs or the song’s oddball finish can affect how smooth, soulful, and sleek Strid’s vocals make it seem. It’s very enjoyable, but it’s so different in mood and pacing that it also feels quite out of place. Then there’s the 43-second humppa interlude, the time they reference the Macbeth witches doubling and bubbling, the” Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” part (really), and plenty of material that leans as close to Calculating Infinity as it does Tomb of the Mutilated.
Need more? There’s also “Story of a Styrofoam,” which in under four minutes features hyperblasting death metal, dissonant math grind, and a lounge music passage that disappears as quickly as it shows up. Plus weirdo clean singing, industrial riffs and rhythms, and nutty melodies in the ensuing “Insomnia.” Until the killer closer “Orgone Accumulator” kicks off with a burst of aggression it seems like the entire second half of this album is going to be a near constant and schizophrenic explosion of outlandish ideas. It doesn’t always work, and sometimes it’s even a little off putting, but you’ve got to appreciate the fearless quirkiness. Or the quirky fearlessness? Sure.
But what did we expect from an album with that Ian Miller cover art? An album that opens with a song quite gloriously entitled “Uglification Spell”? An album named after a substance found most commonly in the cell walls of fungi and exoskeletons of bugs (of both land and sea variety)? Well, you’d expect aural bananas, that’s what, but even all those items don’t quite capture what makes Chitin so simultaneously fun and what-is-happening perplexing. After listening several times I can’t decide if it’s more David Lynch than Tim Burton; it’s both and neither at the same time. It’s Eraserhead played at 10x speed with a pink lens filter, Beetlejuice just as funny but Otho is a serial killer, Twin Peaks but Dr. Jacoby is the hero, and/or/definitely-not-but-also-yes A Nightmare Before Christmas, unaltered.
Maybe it’s Lynch’s version of Dune: technically marvelous, extremely confident, somewhat flawed in holistic execution, ultimately kinda irresistible…
…and as unabashedly weird as Sting in his Dr. Manhattan underoos.
