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Sanguisugabogg: Hideous Aftermath (released October 10, 2025): Century Media Records
Sanguisugabogg has been my favorite modern metal band for the past few years, with their absolutely masterful craft of combining the sounds of classic 90’s death metal with the attitude of the modern hardcore scene to create an environment of absolute chaotic violence at their live shows. Death metal/Slam metal have been crossing over into the hardcore scene much more within the past year, but unfortunately this album does seem like it’s a mark for the beginning of the end for this collision of worlds. The new album “Hideous Aftermath” is significantly slower than the previous ones, and it takes itself much more seriously. I was actually relieved upon hearing the first breakdown of the album, as I almost forgot I was listening to a Sanguisugabogg album with how long it took for the crowd-killing moments to arrive.
related: Sound And Fury 2023 – The Stage Dive Will Never Die
The casual metalhead who sees Sanguisugabogg at a large festival while they’re waiting for Metallica will probably find this new album to be heavy and full of riffs; but the hardcore enthusiast who gave this new metal band a chance will be disappointed by the lack of breakdowns, faster two-stepping moments, and overall punk attitude that they came to love about Sanguisugabogg. While I normally don’t like putting artists into boxes, “Hideous Aftermath” does indicate that they have chosen the metalheads over the punks and I believe we will see many more of the crossover slam/death metal bands make the same decision in the near future.
Don’t miss Sanguisugabogg live this November:
11/12 – OC Observatory
11/13 – The Regent Theater
One aspect of “Hideous Aftermath” that shows Sanguisugabogg’s attempt to display their loyalty to the hardcore scene is the amount of guest features on the album. PeelingFlesh, Todd Jones from Nails, Defeated Sanity, Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation, and Full of Hell (the most interesting collab of these) all appear on the album for short moments; but most of these features do very little to add to the music itself. This trend has been growing in hardcore recently, with Pain Of Truth’s entire discography being a prime example. It’s fun and exciting when a guest singer appears on stage for a song, or there’s one track on an album with some features, but Sanguisugabogg is so established at this point that they really don’t need any help using the clout from other bands. Rather than using these guest artists as a way to enhance the music, it feels like they are mostly there to prove Sanguisugabogg hasn’t left the hardcore scene entirely with this evolution of sound.
related: The Pharoah’s Favorite Death Metal Bands – Nile and Incantation at 1720
The other album we are reviewing this week, “Infinite” by Mobb Deep, is full of guest features that are essential to the listening experience and to generating hype for the album’s release as it’s their first in a decade. In comparison, the features here add very little to the experience, minus Full of Hell’s contribution. Full of Hell collaborates well with anybody however, as evidenced by their collaborations with Nothing, Nails, and The Body. I would personally love to see a full EP or album between them and Sanguisugabogg in the future, as they work together incredibly well here.
Oddly enough, my favorite moments of “Hideous Aftermath” were the solo Sanguisugabogg songs without any guest features, just showing how little these bells and whistles are needed in creating an engaging experience. The marching drums of Cody Davidson at the beginning of the song create an incredibly ominous opening, almost resembling an industrial track more than the death metal roots we expect from Sanguisugabogg. Moments of the song unexpectedly fade out into a muted bass, adding the sort of suspense you would get from watching a jump-scare video. Sanguisugabogg does incorporate these industrial elements into the track very well, and I could see them taking the place of Code Orange or Vein.fm in this sound. Many modern hardcore fans see Slipknot as a bigger influence than Minor Threat and while I find this absolutely blasphemous, it’s easy to see the industrial metal influence in tracks like this.
related: The 1720th Circle Of Hell – Deicide at 1720
Cody Davidson’s drumming really takes the stage for the next track Erotic Beheading as well, especially during the clean and technical drum break at the end amongst the rapid blastbeats. The album does pick up a bit in its intensity towards the end, letting Sanguisugabogg’s unique elements shine more than earlier. The track Semi Automatic Facial Reconstruction featuring Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation has plenty of groovy two-step moments, and his vocals are so different from Bogg frontman Devin Swank that the guest feature is warranted here with the unique experience that it creates. The track is absolutely rapid-fire in its speed with high-pitched distorted guitars and the combined vocals of both singers creating an overwhelming feeling of destruction. Ironically enough considering the guest feature’s pedigree in heavy metal, this was the most punk rock moment of the album.
Regardless of my previous criticisms, the album does end on the highest note possible with the track Paid In Flesh featuring vocalist Dylan Walker of Full of Hell. From the punishing drums that build the beginning of the track and consists throughout, the song feels like a tornado of being overwhelmed more and more by walls of noise and blastbeats all around you. Again, Walker’s vocals are vastly different than the deeper growls of Sanguisugabogg and his guest feature on this album does feel natural. He takes over completely at the end of the song, as it just turns into one slow and extended breakdown with his screeching wails being at the forefront of the listener’s attention. “Hideous Aftermath” really does end on a beautiful note, almost making up for its previous moments of predictability.
While Sanguisugabogg’s newest release “Hideous Aftermath” is missing a lot of the pure aggression and violence found on their previous releases, there are still interesting elements of the album and they absolutely are still going to evolve as artists even further. While it may be in a more conventionally heavy metal direction than the hardcore fans were hoping for, they did attempt to show their loyalty to the hardcore scene with the guest features on the album. While it’s extremely questionable how necessary guest features are on a hardcore album, artist features could not be more essential to the experience of this next album we will be reviewing.
Mobb Deep: Infinite (released October 10, 2025): Mass Appeal
Mobb Deep just released their first album in the past 16 years, “Infinite” and the whole experience feels like they never took a break to begin with. Right out of the gate; the first track feels like a rally cry opening with the lyric “Stronger than ever” which could not be more true before breaking into an iconic “Mobb Deep against the world” as the chorus. I cannot think of a Golden Age of Hip-Hop artist that is still releasing music that is even close to the material they were releasing in their heyday, but Mobb Deep’s “Infinite” is easily on the same level as their classic material.
Don’t miss Mobb Deep live this November:
11/17 – SOMA San Diego
11/18 – The Wiltern
While the soul samples and laid back beats are still present here, Mobb Deep is back with a purpose and a mission. This aggressive approach to their return is only further enhanced by The Alchemist’s contributions to its darker production, modernizing their dangerous New York sound for a newer audience. Tracks like Easy Bruh feel exactly like an early 00’s New York gangster rap song from 50 Cent or Jay-Z; it’s so authentic that one wouldn’t even guess that it was released in 2025. None of it feels rehashed or corny; but necessary in the current era of hip-hop where OG heads feel abandoned or lost.
While Mobb Deep does stand on their own throughout the album, the guest features are a major highlight. Not only did they get all of the features from their classic 1995 album “The Infamous” including Nas, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and Big Noyd; but the track Look At Me is an all-star lineup of the hottest rappers in the more artistic side of hip-hop currently, including Clipse, Pusha T, and Malice. In very sharp contrast to the Sanguisugabogg album we discussed earlier, these guest features are NEEDED. Not only do they add so much personality and life into each track, but they show the curious casual fan that this is a serious Mobb Deep release. This isn’t some nostalgia cash-grab.
One of the standout moments of the album is the track Down For You featuring Jorja Smith and Nas, taking on a more R&B-influenced conscious hip-hop energy than the gangster rap we’ve been hearing throughout most of the album. More vulnerable moments like this throughout the album show the passion that Mobb Deep have for creating the most forward-thinking music that they can. Rather than just pander to the old-school fans who want to hear some scary 90’s New York gangster shit, they want to spread their wings a bit and show you how varied they can be within the genre. The track even has a “Pt 2” towards the end of the album with Nas and H.E.R.; Mobb Deep really want you to focus on their more sensitive side in this release, and their cohesive way of tying these two tracks together succeeds in this goal perfectly
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The track Clear Black Nights is a must-listen for any Wu-Tang Clan fan. Especially with how inconsistent the members’ music have been over the past 2 decades, it feels almost surreal to hear Ghostface Killah and Raekwon rapping over such a beautiful uplifting beat in 2025. Ghostface’s verse on this track is personally my favorite of the whole album, and the whole song finds a perfect balance between the blissful background music and the intimidating aggressive rapping on top of it.
After changing course and entering a modern R&B direction with Love The Way (Down For You Pt. 2) to continue the delicacy of the previous Down For You track on the album, Mobb Deep closes the album by breaking their sound down to the most simplistic and raw form possible. The finale We The Real Thing sends the listener off with a final reminder that Mobb Deep IS indeed the real thing; they keep up with the current times by working with newer artists like The Alchemist and Clipse, but they will never abandon their roots as golden age New York gangster rappers. The track is dark and intimidating, a complete contrast to the R&B track before it. Compared to the experimental finale of Sanguisugabogg’s new album, Mobb Deep took the opposite approach by giving their hardcore fans the purest form of their sound possible.
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October 10, 2025 is quite the unexpected day for music releases. Personally I would have bet money that Sanguisugabogg, an up and coming consistent death metal band would have had the more interesting release today. While they did enter a new direction on “Hideous Aftermath”, it’s a direction that is much more likely to appeal to the common metalhead than hardcore punks looking for experimentation in their breakdowns. The industrial elements that they incorporated into the album are quite interesting however, and I hope we see more of that side of The Bogg in the future.
In absolute contrast, Mobb Deep released a Golden Age of Hip-Hop classic in 2025 (a feat I didn’t even think was possible) and has revived my interest in listening to new releases from veteran Hip-Hop artists; they really killed it on this release and it’s a must-listen for any fan of any era of Hip-Hop. Both albums are certainly worth checking out for different reasons, but Mobb Deep really blew it out of the park with one of the most engaging Hip-Hop albums of the year; hell, the 2020’s overall so far.
Words by Danny Ryan
