How did Sanguisugabogg‘s “Hideous Aftermath” sneak into a top place on my best albums of 2025 list, and what does the band have to offer a mostly disgruntled death metal fan like me? Let’s dive into it!
About me – deathdoom.com, music and more
- Stefan Nordström
- Musician, songwriter, content creator, digital freelancer
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Bands: Desolator, Soliloquium, Ending Quest, Ashes of Life, Trees of Daymare, The Ashen Tree
- Social: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
- Stay in touch: Newsletter signup
- Support my work on PayPal: 1€ | 2€ | 5€ | 10€
My history with Sanguisugabogg
Honestly, I hadn’t listened to Sanguisugabogg at all before 2025’s “Hideous Aftermath”. I knew of the band but I generally discarded it as some slam act I probably wouldn’t have been that into. While that could be true for their earlier albums, I’m damn happy I gave the latest one a spin.
It was hard to ignore the album’s glowing reviews so I decided to give it a random shot. At first glance, it can come off as your average brutal death metal album, but I think it’s way more than that. After watching a few metal podcasts with the band members, I started putting together how broad their influence pool is. This, combined with the insanely low tuning and wild sonic choices, explains a lot why this stands out.
Genius songwriting and infectious grooves
Much like Benighted, my favorite brutal death metal band of all-time, Sanguisugabogg draws from nu-metal, hardcore, industrial and so on, to create something that is beyond the usual extreme metal scope. As caveman and disgusting as “Hideous Aftermath” sounds, it’s extremely well put together.
It does remind me a lot of Benighted’s peak era around late 2000’s/early 2010’s in that every tempo change comes at the perfect time. Many of the twists and turns on the album leave me involuntarily headbanging – it’s just that infectious. Sonically very different bands, but the songcraft definitely has a lot in common.
I must also add that this has a strong organic charm. It grooves like hell, and feels more like a band in a live environment than a 2025 studio record. The slam (some might say St. Anger) snare drum is a perfect compliment to the buzzing low guitars, making for a wild sonic experience. This thing just sounds thorougly disgusting, just as intended.
The 47 minute running time is just perfect, retaining a solid “all killer, no filler” feeling. Unlike many brutal albums, there is a lot of variation as well. Songs have their own unique character, and the band is not afraid to experiment as well, like in the droning “Repulsive Demise”. My favorite track is probably “”Semi Automatic Facial Reconstruction”, delivering some stomping grooves, a Travis Ryan feature, and a ridicilously over the top sample in the end. But you can’t really go wrong on this one.
Does this give me more hope for death metal in 2026?
As some of you may know, I’ve been pretty out of death metal for the past few years. Despite a lot of talent in the scene, much of the music is same-same to me, and the space/retro trends haven’t really matched where my music taste is going. I would really like to get heavily into death metal again, and I’ll certainly keep trying in 2026.
At least I’m very thankful to Sanguisugabogg for hitting me with an undeniable enjoyable, unique death metal album. This has plenty of oomph, variation and character. Spin it! Now!
Support my music and content
I nerd out to nerd out, but also to have people check out my music and content projects. If you want to support me, have a listen to my progressive death/doom metal band Soliloquium, and share my stuff around. I’m most active on Insta, where you’ll find me most of the time. Cheers!
0 Comments