The Seventh Day of Doom

Remember black metallers woeing the loss of the days of old? Whereupon others would point out lots of good new releases in the scene? Both groups are right. There are plenty of innovative and new releases. But stuff like this? Nope.

It's hard to believe this was releases as early as '88. This quirky demo was not per se way ahead of it's time, but it was completely different from anything around that era, or anything released now for that matter. One might argue though this isn't entirely purebred black metal. It's...weird. On the other hand, I couldn't call it anything else but black metal. It's basically a peculiar form of thrash with Attila Csizar's peculiar raw screams over it and a Satanic theme.

In a way it's comparable to Azhubham Haani: honest and straightforward riffs, but both catchy as fuck and somehow generating the feeling you're listening to something obscure and occult. But where Azhubham Haani is mostly slow melancholic black metal, Tormentor performs frantic and energetic madness (like Azhubham Haani in the faster parts). Although the speed sometimes starts mid-paced, it always goes into fast-paced riffing where they're doing awesome guitar solos half the time. What's up with that? It's almost like Dick Dale, continually they bring in new riffs and go soloing. They re-use a lot of riffs mind you, but it's a far cry from the 3-riff minimalism that would later dominate the scene.

Check out the 9 minute song Infinite Darkness. They keep returning to a basic, but kick-ass, buzzing guitar riff, while building up speed. There's guitarsolos going on continually, while Attila Csizar croaks over it at increasing pace and throws in a few mad shrieks. Or for that matter check out Mephisto: just one insane speedfest.

This might not fall into the militaristic nihilism mold, but it sure fits the anti-conventionality mold. This demo keeps maddening pace, while varying all over the place. And most of all, for me this has that 'feel' I associate with releases from the early part of a scene. No pretention, just pure honest music unlike heard before, and a special kind of atmosphere.