Japanese death metal mainstays Defiled have announced their ninth studio album, Altered State, arriving June 12, 2026 via Season of Mist. So if you needed to get real filthy this week, here’s your chance.
To mark the announcement, the band have dropped lead single “Portal”, a dizzying introduction to the album’s warped sonic landscape.
Altered State spans 14 tracks, weaving together blistering technicality, progressive structures and a disorienting sense of atmosphere. While rooted in death metal’s formative years, the record pushes far beyond genre orthodoxy – something founding guitarist Yusuke Sumita is keenly aware of: “Like many other bands, our musical roots are heavily influenced by early ’90s death metal and ’80s thrash and hardcore, however, our interpretation is different and has branched off from the current scene.”
“On Altered State, there are many catchy hooks, but tricky progressive rhythms and song structures can be found as well. The album may not be understandable after a few listens, but it taps into a blind spot that many bands have missed”.
Across its runtime, the album reportedly blends old-school death metal with technical thrash and progressive rock influences, while lyrically drawing inspiration from 1984 – channelling themes of dystopia and psychological unease into its conceptual framework.
“Both musically and lyrically, Altered State is an expansion of The Highest Level and Horror Beyond Horror“, Sumita explains.
“The music is a combination of old-school death metal, technical-thrash riffs and the rhythmic changes of progressive rock. The lyrics are based on the dystopian world presented in George Orwell‘s science-fiction masterpiece 1984. They express the madness that everyone living in the present currently feels.”
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