Severe Torture - "Sworn Vengeance"

Severe Torture - Serenity Torn Asunder

Severe Torture - Sworn Vengeance / Earache

One of the best things about death metal is that it's never going to go away. Never. There's always going to be people looking for the craziest, most over-the-top style of music (which seems to be why a lot of metal dudes end up really liking experimental music or free jazz). A lot of death metal fans are slaves to precision in the genre. This has led, over the years, to a very mechanical sound on a lot of death-metal albums. Striving to achieve sonic perfection in order to showcase how talented they are, the original idea of the music—to be as fucking brutal as possible—is lost in the ones and zeros, completely defeating the purpose of death metal. Other bands have no budget and sound really sloppy and shitty, which can work if your band is a little rough around the edges (see: grindcore bands). Holland's Severe Torture definitely fall into the former category of precise brutality, but their music has a very punk-rock feel to it . . . if you catch my vibes, maaaaaan.

After releasing their first album in 2001 (Feasting on Blood), and a follow-up in 2002 (Misanthropic Carnage) on Karmageddon Records, the band made a label jump to Earache with 2005's Fall of the Despised, a pretty slick album that was somewhat unremarkable musically, but had great cover art. After being pushed back from September to November of 2007, the world is finally getting the fourth album from Severe Torture.

Like mentioned above, these guys have a nice punk feel in way they write their songs. Sure, there's plenty of palm-muting and double bass drum action, but there's a loose, fun feel to the songs. One of the many obstacles to overcome when playing death metal is to make the songs not only brutal, but interesting to listen to (and, I'm assuming is the case for most bands, fun to play) and dissect. Severe Torture doesn't rely strictly on blasting and insanely complex riffs to get their point across. There's plenty of thrashy riffs, and the guitar work underneath the blast beats is usually pretty straightforward. Recorded cleanly, but written in a way that the riffs don't just sound like mush under a flurry of drums and vocals. You can have the cleanest recording in the history of music, and if the riffs are too busy for their own good, it's going to sound like garbage when played at a million miles per hour (especially in a live setting).

"Repeat Offender" is a great example of a death-metal band that understands tempo in their chosen genre. It's pretty mid-tempo for the most part, and drummer Seth Van De Loo switches to blasts only when the riff becomes faster and then immediately slows back down to accommodate the rest of the band when they decide that fast-time is over.

The song immediately following "Repeat Offender," "Countless Villains," is an all-slow affair, a full-count setting you up for the high-heat fastball of "Dogmasomatic Nausea," one of the many fast songs on the album.

Fast is really what Severe Torture do best, bassist Patrick Boleij doing his best Alex Webster impression and hanging with the guitar riffs like he was born to play in a death-metal rhythm section. Believe it or not, with all of the shit the bass guitar gets in metal (you can never hear it/no one pays attention to it), it really is an important part of the listening experience. It just takes a talented bassist to make his mark on an album. Guitars not doing much? How about a little bass flourish? Take a listen at 55 seconds into album-opener "Dismal Perception" for a little bass accent that not only fills up some empty musical space, but adds a little melody that the main riff eventually brings to the forefront. I don't know if it's the exact, same notes, but it sounds close.

"Buried Hatchet" finds Jason Netherton (Misery Index, ex-Dying Fetus) and Che Snelping (ex-Born From Pain) both contributing guest vocals (and another little bass zazz at the start of the track!), and the title track follows. The longest song on the album, it's a 5:18 riff marathon that ends in a slow fade-out, segueing into album-closer, "Submerged in Grief." A slow, instrumental song, it's the perfect way to round out an album that's been challenging your ears and brain for over half an hour.