Torture Rack | facebook |
Released on January 25, 2016 via Memento Mori
Death metal die-hards will love the subject of this album review, featuring Memento Mori’s old-school-influenced stomping death metal ensemble Torture Rack, and their Barbaric Persecution full-length CD.
These guys hail from Portland, Oregon, and have released a demo to accompany this debut full-length. They’ve already been slated to support established bands like Funebrarum, so if you’ve been living under a rock, you might as well come out and check this shit before you miss all the carnage. Torture Rack rules! There it is!
The riffs are raw and primitive, but the production lends a helping hand for the listener to appreciate the instrumentation here. The riffs are smooth; the chord transitions are clear and executed with mastery. The riffs aren’t complicated in the first place, making use of some age-old classic riffs and mixing them up with some chugging and shredding riffs that are well-chosen for each song. More than just a riff-fest however, Torture Rack’s Barbaric Persecution features some punk and thrash influence. This isn’t your standard doom/death album courtesy of Memento Mori. This is primitive extreme metal with chunky rhythm guitar sections and minute shred and blast transitions. The songs are catchy and easy to like. Death metal fans into older Cannibal Corpse and Obituary will gorge on this eleven-track-long terror.
A proper full-length album, catchy to a fault and brutal in lyrical composition and execution, Torture Rack don’t do anything groundbreaking here. They just happen to write songs in the classic style with conviction and skill. Old-school deathers will love this slab of predictably catchy grunt-along headbang-friendly album-full of songs without apprehension.
The drumming is precise. Fans will love hearing the snare and toms during fill-ins. The drum tracks are nicely arranged and the production values capture the performance perfectly.
Guttural growls are the standard vocal style on all the songs. Perhaps not as deep as Chris Barnes old unintelligible bark, Torture Rack use the death grunt effectively. Which isn’t to say that they couldn’t have mixed up a little scream to add nuance. However, the grunts suffice, even though they aren’t delivered with much power.
The bass drives the rhythm even deeper into your love for heaviness. Anchoring the drums, following the rhythm guitar closely, the bass adds punch to the performances here. Don’t expect bass solos or basslines sticking out of the greater part of the songs. They add umph to the bass drum and thickness to the guitar. Not much more than that, but then, what would you expect of an extreme metal band? Better not complain that the basslines are too plain, or you wouldn’t know a thing about this music at all.
It’s hard to make a pick for track highlight here, as all the songs feature some good riffage and all songs are suitably brutal and groovy. Your last choice of song to end the listening session may just end up being your favorite, even though that choice might differ each time. Tracks like ‘Entrail Intruder’, ‘Sentenced to Gang Rape’, and ‘Beheaded for the Bloodbath’ are all nice choices. Track six, ‘Open Casket Funeral Puker’, sounds like good ‘ol Dead Congregation with a little punk.
Distinctly groovy, it’s possible to bop your head north to south while in your car during a roadtrip with this album playing. Just don’t get caught headbanging while the traffic’s bumper-to-bumper or you’ll rear-end someone for sure.
Album covers rarely play much of a role in deciding a review, but this cover’s so typical that I had to convince you to get a copy of the album. Who wants surprises when it comes to old-school death metal? The cover rules, and that’s just more icing on your bloody finger to eat.
Overall, this album isn’t the most original, but it’s death metal done right. If you want something original, it would better be as special as Celtic Frost was decades ago. If not, snap up a copy of this after you stream our première, and be warned. You’ll like this as much as that old death metal album you started out with in high school.
