Death Awaits
(Listenable Records)
40:48min
Yes! An album of Swedish TORMENTED is always something to look forward to. People who are familiar with their debut "Rotten Death" from 2009 and two EPs ("Graveyard Lust" and the split with BOMBS OF HADES, both from last year) know what to expect… Heavy Swedish Death Metal in the vein of DISMEMBER, BASTARD PRIEST and BLACK BREATH. Released on Listenable, "Death Awaits" makes clear how much this style owes to AUTOPSY. A similar dirty, rotting but oh so wonderful stench smokes out of your speaker through nine leaden and dripping chunks with titles as ‘Insane With Dread’, ‘To Spil Her Blood’, ‘Into Crypts Of Dead’ and especially ‘I.O.T.D’. The process of ripening that was set in "Graveyard Lust" is continued with the same emphasis on quality riffs and variation instead of pounding all the way through. Thanks to the experience of these guys the songs take a positive turn on the right moment to prevent monotony. Small weakness in general are the chorusses with a continuous mentioning of songtitles, but that’s personal taste. The production gives more room for the drums than before through which the tight rolls of Jocke Ölund and the power of continuous beaten cymbals come across pretty good. The vocals of Dread (Andreas Axelsson) are perfect, with growls that sound rough yet perfectly understandable. His riffs and those of Claes Holmberg are not really catchy but good enough in keeping the level of this release high. The bass is mainly there to add heaviness to the guitars and does this just fine. Only by a small amount of bands the atmosphere and flame of the ’90s is revived like they’ve never been gone, with albums that give the same kick and enthusiasm as the classics we all know and TORMENTED is heading for that direction. A track like ‘I.O.T.D’ is a promise for the quality of future releases. Words like originality and renovation are out of place here and not relevant, because sometimes you shouldn’t change the recipe to get that one special sensation. In this context "Death Awaits" is a very tasty one! For more information check out www.myspace.com/fuckingtormented or www.facebook.com/pages/tormented/161161300563301.
Michael Tak
• TORMENTED - Rotten Death (Branko Matijaševic)