The choice of their moniker wasn’t necessarily TORMENT’s most clever decision as we already have the unstoppable TORMENT from Germany for ages now… And as far as I can recall there was (is?) also at least one TORMENT overseas. Oh well, time will tell whether this is gonna cause some problems and / or confusion or not. Fact is, that the band we’re dealing with here, is a five piece from Oostrozebeke (near Kortrijk) in Belgium, that got together in 1999 and released two demos ever since (“Sickening Obsessions” and “Hate Fulfilled” in 2000 and 2002 respectively). In 2003 they ended up being the winners of a band contest which gained them the support slot for DESTRUCTION and ALTAR and in 2004 they got the opportunity to play at the London Deathfest alongside VADER, CANCER, CADUCITY und CADAVEROUS CONDITION. All those experiences are pretty much evident on TORMENT’s debut full length “Forgive The Ignorant”, which is a very impressive musical statement to kick things off with on a more professional level after all! The nine featured, brandnew tracks on offer have a very strong MORBID ANGEL overtone in the writing, which obviously means that we’re dealing with rather brutal, US styled Death Metal on a high technical level here. The similarities to Trey Azagthoth’s unholy horde are clearly shining through in the vocal department (frontman Ullie Vandendriessche delivers a very David Vincent influenced, yet convincing way of singing) and the songstructuring offers slow to midpaced riffing combined with several blasting parts and sick soloing. The main difference to the Florida bunch can be found in a couple of quite moody / atmospheric parts, that were basically used in order to end songs with and that surprisingly fit into the overall very brutal offering incredibly well. The precise playing of drummer Nicolas Hernandez is rather scary though as it often comes incredibly close to a drum machine (especially his fast double bass parts sound quite unnatural to me) while the album’s last song (a very Spanish sounding instrumental guitar piece entitled ‘Ritmo Del Gringo’), is another impressive proof for the incredible musicial skills of the band. An excellent, crystal clear, yet totally crushing production and a simple, but totally fitting sleeve design complete the overall very positive impression. So, next to their fellow-countrymen SUHRIM, EMETH, HEADMEAT and ORB OF TORTURE, TORMENT is without a doubt another great young band from Belgium to keep an eye on in the future! More info: www.torment.be, label contact: www.diabolical-constellation.com