Defiled

by Eduardo Rivadavia   Japanese death metal band Defiled was formed in Tokyo in 1992 and initially featured guitarist Yusuke Sumita, bassist Norihisa Fukuda, vocalist Masafumi Kitamura, and drummer Kouji Uchida, but the last two didn't make it past the group's self-financed debut EP from 1994, Defeat of Sanity. Their replacements were Hideki Fujimoto and Yuichi Ishiguro, respectively, but Defiled existed as little more than a domestic touring unit until 1999, when they finally earned an international deal with American Nightfall Records for the release of their first full album, entitled Erupted Wrath. 2001's Ugliness Revealed (featuring temporary drummer Naoki Akamatsu) and 2003's Divination followed in due course and garnered mostly enthusiastic press to go with the group's numerous U.S. festival performances and equally positive comparisons to technical death titans like Gorguts and Suffocation. Yet even though they also gradually bolstered the group's profile worldwide, Defiled have yet to achieve widespread recognition for their efforts -- even within mainstream metal circles.