Torturerama - It Begins at Birth

TORTURERAMA - It Begins at Birth (DOLOREM Records - CD 2014)

This is the second demo of Belgian Torturerama. Their first CD “Left as Remains” I liked a lot, but you know what? This second recording, “It Begins at Birth” is even better!! Hell yeah! I like it so much that my skull is literally exploding in ache, after the maniacal headbanging have been performed while listening to it. Yes, this is truly killer demo. Obviously these Belgian Bastards still walk a similar path as on their previous release, so again they offer a well known death metal, influenced by the old school Swedish bands. Again they have a strong inspiration from such Dismember, Carnage, Entombed and such newer bands like Entrails, Puteraeon, Interment, Mordbrand… No one should deny the similarities. No one should also request for originality and fuck knows what… because you won’t get them. This is traditional, straight to the bone, pure death metal. But it slays like mad, it crushes and sounds truly brilliant. Nothing else matters.

I consider “It Begins at Birth” to be better than the debut, for Torturerama have improved everything on it. First off, the sound! Yes, I liked that rough, vulgar production of the first demo, but I like the sound of “It Begins at Birth” more! It is cleaner, but still very aggressive, very powerful and it obviously has the great guitar tone of Swedish death metal, plus I just love how the bass guitar sounds here. Plus killer drums… and finally the vocals, which definitely are sounding better than on the previous demo. So, you see that it can’t go bad way. And it doesn’t, also because the songs are truly fantastic. “Sheppard of a Secret Realm”, which opens the demo, is so damn fantastic, has great, creepy melodies and killer atmosphere of horror! What a great riffing, very good, obscure vocals… There are four songs in total, and believe me, I like them all. They’re more melodic sometimes, but still aggression, morbidity and disgust are important for the sound of Torturerama. I don’t care if you say that already 20 years ago there were many bands playing this style and also nowadays there are too many similar acts, so such release is not so special anymore. I don’t care, because for me a well performed, well recorded Swedish death metal influenced recording will always be special. And fuck, “It Begins at Birth” is awesome! If you don’t believe me, then give a listen to “Necromantical Tendencie” – this song will slay you with no mercy and rip the guts out within seconds! Remember, 100 copies only available!

Standout tracks: “Sheppard of a Secret Realm”, “Necromantical Tendencie”

Final rate: 85/100