Severe Torture
Feasting On Blood
Hammerheart
Severe Torture’s Feasting On Blood•(sigh) brilliant, absolutely brilliant, guys. In all fairness, though, Severe Torture are as good as they come in the trigger-happy, post-Suffocation school of gore-grind, but isn’t that asking too little? And, really, who’s counting? In any case, the Dutch quartet has two tricks up their bloody sleeves: accelerate and (less so) decelerate. Thing is, within this polarized framework, Severe Torture go for a deliberately direct attack that, for better or worse, never succumbs to obtuse riff cram-a-thons or inebriated, headless song structures, the end result rendering itself sometimes-catchy, sometimes-bleary-eyed, sometimes-enjoyable. Nonetheless, after a cursory read of Feasting On Blood’s song titles (here•s the first four: “Feces For Jesus,” “Decomposing Bitch,” “Baptized in Virginal Liquid,” and, um, “Blood”), not to mention lead gurgler Dennis’ toilet-flushed gullet eruptions, you can pretty much surmise it’s a strictly ghettoized affair with next to nil potential for advances in employment on Severe Torture’s part. Solely recommended for those graveless souls who wear all black in the summer and anyone into poverty-level metal.
Hammerheart, PO Box 277, 6300 AG Valkenburg, The Netherlands, http://www.hammerheart.com
