Defiled release title track ‘Altered State’ of upcoming album

Tokyo death metal legends DEFILED have released a music video for “Altered State”, the third and final advance single from their upcoming ninth album of the same name. While upholding death metal’s raw speed, the title track upends all conventions at every twist and turn.

“Altered State is undoubtedly one of the most unconventional entries in our discography”, says Yusuke. “DEFILED have shifted our focus toward concepts that we and death metal as a whole have overlooked. We invite anyone to join us in exploring the outermost edges of the genre.” The track moves like a spider spinning a web; catchy on the surface, but structurally impossible to fully grasp, with tempo shifts that lean more toward progressive or fusion methodologies than traditional death metal. Bassist Takachika Nakajima and drummer Keisuke Hamada cut sharply between slippery grooves, while Shinichiro Hamada conjures a demonic solo with his whammy bar before growling “Receive the power.” The track closes with a head-spinning frenzy that rips apart any preconceptions of the genre. “You are now in an altered state.”

Ahead of the album’s release, DEFILED will host a Bandcamp Listening Party on Thursday, May 28 at 12:00 pm CEST / 6:00 am ET, during which the full album will be available to stream.

RSVP: https://defiledjapan.bandcamp.com/live/altered-state-listening-party

In support of Altered State, DEFILED will embark on a Japanese headline tour this June, visiting fifteen cities across the country. The run opens June 9 in Tokyo with a show alongside Incantation before winding through Fukushima, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and beyond, concluding June 22 in Mabi. DEFILED will also appear alongside Brujeria in Tokyo and Osaka this September.

DEFILED 2026 Japanese Dates with Brujeria
September 15 – Tokyo @ Cyclone
September 16 – Osaka @ Socore Factory

DEFILED truly are their own island. While active since 1992, during death metal’s golden era, the Tokyo legends are neither relics nor custodians for the old-school. They do not follow Western traditions. They cannot be reduced to tokens like kimonos or samurai.  Like the Japanese salamander, they continue to evolve in isolation, free from passing trends. Founding member and guitarist Yusuke Sumita and his band of warriors remain masters of the form, but their upcoming ninth album bears only a passing resemblance to the genre’s past or present. On Altered State, DEFILED unleash a dizzying blast of death metal straight from the future.

“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”, Sumita says. “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”.

Though they’re indifferent to scenes within the larger world of metal, DEFILED’s presence has spread far and wide for more than three decades. The band’s 1994 debut EP, Defeat of Sanity, quickly proved prescient after inspiring the name of their future Season of Mist labelmates Defeated Sanity. Their first three full-lengths – Erupted Wrath (1999), Ugliness Revealed (2001) and Divination (2003) – were all mixed by none other than the legend himself, Jim Morris, at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida. Early success set them upon a war path through the Japanese underground and onto the international stage. DEFILED ransacked Milwaukee Metal Festival and banged heads with Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Cannibal Corpse and Incantation.

Since signing with Season of Mist in 2003, DEFILED have shown no sign of slowing down. Despite enduring some changes between 2011’s In Crisis and 2016’s Towards Inevitable Ruin, the personnel around Sumita is now locked in with Keisuke Hamada pounding on drums, Takachika Nakajima nailing down bass and Shinichiro Hamada handling both guitars and vocals. Starting with Infinite Regress in 2020, this lineup is currently riding a seemingly endless hot streak. After reaching The Highest Level in 2023, they topped themselves once more with 2024’s Horror Beyond Horror.

Metalheads can be forgiven for assuming DEFILED had already reached peak shredding, that there were no horrors left for them to reveal. But Altered State quickly quiets any leftover suspicions. Lead single “Portal” opens with a reminder that this band can sharpen even traditional riffs before breaking into a series of tempo shifts that unlock another plane of existence. Though still influenced by sounds that came from the underground, the album delves even deeper into their psychic perception of our warped reality with a twist of inspiration from Stravinsky. Occultists gather around the shapeshifting groove that seizes hold over “Obsession”.

“Both musically and lyrically, Altered State is an expansion of The Highest Level and Horror Beyond Horror”, Sumita says. “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”.

Altered State isn’t afraid to wind through the darkest and most mysterious corners of our collective consciousness. But listen closely to DEFILED and all secrets will be revealed. “Receive the power”, the band command on the album’s title track with a chaos that only they can control.

Line-up:
Shinichiro Hamada — Vocals, Guitar
Yusuke Sumita — Guitar
Takachika Nakajima — Bass
Keisuke Hamada — Drums