Album Review: Sanguisugabogg - Hideous Aftermath (2025, Century Media)
- Stuart Ball
- Oct 5
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 6
Written: 5th October 2025
Ohio brutal death metal quartet Sanguisugabogg have built their name on ugly riffs, dark humour and a love of all things gruesome. Since emerging from the underground, the band have toured relentlessly with acts such as Cannibal Corpse and Lorna Shore. While recording Hideous Aftermath, the band’s third full-length album, they were determined to focus solely on the music and put together the best bunch of songs possible. Enlisting producer Kurt Ballou, the band holed up at God City Studio Studios in Salem, Massachusetts in the Spring of 2025. “We got off the road after a lot of touring and wanted to drill down and be as purely creative as possible without distraction,” says vocalist Devin Swank. “Kurt mixed Homicidal Ecstasy, so he already understood what we were going for.” Sanguisugabogg are certainly pleased with the result with Swank stating, “It’s the one where we rolled our sleeves up and brought our A-Game.”
When beginning to listen to Hideous Aftermath, the first thing of note is that the album is not far off fifty minutes long which pushes the boundaries for bands of this type. It was with some interest that I started the album wondering if Sanguisugabogg could keep their blood-soaked momentum alive without the sheer onslaught collapsing under its own weight.
Rotted Entanglement kicks things off in typically brutal musical style and the macabre lyrics cover familiar ground with graphic imagery, blurring the lines between love and death. Exploring necrophilia as a grotesque metaphor for obsession and possession, Devin Swank delivers some truly impressive pulverising guttural vocals that sink deep into the dark abyss of his range. What is immediately apparent is the step-up in production values since the band’s last album, Homicidal Ecstasy. Everything is more precise but this has not been at the expense of the uncompromising ferocity that fans will expect; it never comes close to being too clinical. There are short motifs and phrases that hint at melody between the monolithic riffs. However, they are delivered with a molten intensity that does not detract from the pummelling approach.
Felony Abuse of a Corpse (which features the first of several guest vocal appearances – this one by Damonteal Harris of Peeling Flesh) is initially an altogether grimy affair with a rampaging death metal groove. It stomps like a colossal behemoth exploring its territory; it is another step forward for the band in addition to the production in their use of instrumentation. “There’s real bass guitar on the album,” reveals Devin. “In the past, we would split the low-end signal on the guitar - it was kind of our thing. This time Ced and Drew switched off on playing actual bass, in addition to having that low-end signal, which made things a lot clearer and punchier.” This approach anchors the mix and the riffs hit with crushing momentum and relentless drive, each passage propelling the song forward with unyielding force.
As the album progresses, Sanguisugabogg do aim to bring some variety to the overall sound and their compositions. Ritual of Autophagia (featuring Todd Jones of Nails) plays with tempos as tempestuous slower segments meld with flashes of frenzy. Vocally, it is among the most visceral on Hideous Aftermath and the addition of Jones is something Devin Swank is keen to highlight, “He hasn’t done highs like that since [Nails’] Abandon All Life. When Todd asked us how we wanted him to approach it, we basically said, “You, from 15 years ago!’ Throughout the track, Cody Davidon’s drumming is excitingly tumultuous when needed but he also understands the need to strip back the seismic power and fills at certain moments. On Heinous Testimony, he spends the majority of the track on all out attack – his blast beats thunderous and wondrously rapid - while never overwhelming the rest of the band. Drew Arnold’s and Cedrik Davis’s gargantuan riffs are focused and sharp, a testament to the tight style of songwriting the band have developed. It is also a track on which Swank spreads his lyrical wings while recounting a mass shooting through the eyes of the perpetrator. It is a step toward psychological and societal horror, grounding Sanguisugabogg’s brutality in a disturbingly human context. Confess to the horrid scene I have caused / Their faces covered in shock when I admit to it / And now this story unfolds.
Abhorrent Contraception – with additional vocals from Josh Welshman of Defeated Sanity - has a number of different moods: from the rampaging chaos of the middle of the track to the twisted evil that inhabits the song’s finale. It fits the subject matter well because Abhorrent Contraception is one of Hideous Aftermath’s most disturbing moments, not only for its grotesque depiction of filicide but for the inclusion of a spoken-word sample from serial killer Joseph Kallinger. Kallinger’s emotionless delivery, devoid of even a flicker of remorse, chills more deeply than the gore itself - a glimpse into real, unfeeling monstrosity that no fictional horror could match. It is further proof of how Sanguisugabogg have thought about each detail of the album and how to exact the maximum amount of dread and sonic punishment from each passing minute.
Five tracks and twenty-five minutes into the album and Sanguisugabogg have given us extremely little in the way of respite and so in many ways, Repulsive Demise is the most interesting song here. From the first second, it is clear that we are heading somewhere completely different. Rumbling bass notes and a steady open beat – this is by far the simplest track on the album - create an ominous feeling that is highlighted by a far-off electronic beat: methodical and repeating. The riffs are molasses thick but the overall feel is that of slow industrial metal with a sprinkling of doom. Lumbering but with clear direction, it lyrically depicts themes of nihilism, apocalyptic violence and moral decay, portraying society’s collapse and inevitable death. Perfectly positioned on the album, it gives the listener the chance to regroup and prepare for the onslaught of the final four tracks. Without doubt, it is one of the highlights of the album, an extended version of which appears on some editions. “We wanted to lean into a Justin Broadrick-Godflesh kind of sound. It would be sick to include other elements like that in the future and do that kind of genre-stretching that bands like Fear Factory or Sepultura did back in the 90s. I think we’re the kind of band that could get away with that,” Swank explains.
Erotic Beheading embraces the band’s love of old school death metal – albeit with a healthy dose of deathcore elements - with unforgiving bone-shattering drums, driving bass and subterranean vocals that threaten to reduce your speakers to dust. It is the shortest track on Hideous Aftermath – at a little under three minutes – and this range in track length is necessary as some stretch to over five minutes and one, more of which later, reaches almost eight. However, when listening to the album as a whole, Erotic Beheading and following track Sanctified Defilement – which highlights cultism in religion - initially appear to have little to separate them and if it was not for an attention grabbing bridge towards the end of Sanctified Defilement, you might think you were listening to two parts of one long track. A rare misstep in the running order of Hideous Aftermath.
The album’s penultimate track Semi-Automatic Facial Reconstruction rectifies this with its more melodic (by the standards of this album at least) introduction before it crashes down into utter carnage. Davidson’s drum speed is phenomenal and mirrors the ballistic and mechanised elements of the lyrics which depict relentless, gun violence - exposing society’s desensitisation and obsession with spectacle, and the disturbing normalisation of death. The song is further enhanced by guest vocals from Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation who has been appearing frequently on recent releases, including Revocation’s latest album. Devin Swank comments, “I wanted him to do the same highs and gutturals he was doing on Humanure for ‘Semi-Automatic Facial Reconstruction.’ He’s such a sick vocalist.”
The album ends with an eight minute epic Paid in Flesh, a track length almost unheard of in death metal. On a song divided into three main sections and to which Full of Hell’s Dylan Walker adds his heart-rendering howl, Sanguisugabogg are pushing every element of their songwriting as far as they are able. Beginning with three minutes that mirror much of what we have heard on the album before - immense, chugging riffs, bludgeoning vocals and Cody Davidson decimating his kit as if his life depended on it - Paid In Flesh does not disappoint. During the next few minutes, the instruments fall away and Sanguisugabogg head fully into quite exquisite doom-dirge territory. Agonised, pained vocals dive into an exploration of mortality, decay and karmic retribution. Parable of agony / Crown for a corpse / Distended tumours / Mouldering curse / Ruin beyond God. During the final section, the guitars return with slow deliberate riffs and a wonderful melodic guitar break that sits between the drums and the combination of Dylan Walker and Devin Swank. Paid in Flesh stands as a triumph of an album closer: ambitious, harrowing and utterly unforgettable.
Hideous Aftermath demonstrates that Sanguisugabogg have advanced their songwriting and ambition to a new level. The band has broadened the scope of their lyrical content. “There’s definitely songs that are more meaningful on this record,” Swank admits. “There’s still that barbaric element, that ‘See-Person-Kill-Person’ mentality but there’s songs that go darker and even more into real life.” Cody Davidson’s drumming drives intricate rhythms that shift effortlessly from crushing death metal passages into sudden bursts of deathcore aggression and hardcore energy. Without doubt, it is a punishing listen but the album, for the vast majority of the time, flows with intensity and contrast, even though it might run one track too long - a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent release. Even with this small flaw, the record stands as the band’s most fully realised and accomplished work to date, a commanding statement in extreme metal. Nuanced, inventive and at times, unpredictable.
Hideous Aftermath is released on 10th October 2025.
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