Far Beyond Existence

The album kicks off without wasting time with introductions! "Don't Cross My Path" opens right away with an open guitar riff and continues in a track that manages, without giving up the brutality, to insert numerous breaks and tempo variations. Christófaro makes some very fast turns here, but that would still be extrapolated by the blast beats of the next track, "No Fate".

The sitar that introduces "Blood Sacrifice" is certainly the quietest moment of the album and this becomes, right away, one of the best songs of the band's catalog, with its theme about the Hindu goddess Kali, and Mayara extrapolating in the aggressiveness. "Steady Hands" starts with a riff closer to traditional Metal and is a song with more cadence than the ones that preceded it, but if this is an album that celebrates the good moment of Torture Squad, it wouldn't fit a celebration without the presence of guests! "Far Beyond Existence" is full of them, and etiquette dictates that we should welcome the most distant visitors first. Dave Ingram, who has already put his howls at the service of Benediction and Bolt Thrower, appears to participate in "Hate" and the insanity of this track leaves nothing to owe to his resume, being able to feel at home in the division of voices with Mayara.

Throughout the album we see that all members participated in the writing process to a greater or lesser extent, but "Hero For The Ages" has something special. Its lyrics were made with excerpts from statements and teachings of the icon Bruce Lee, compiled and organized by Christófaro. At the end of this one, we can better appreciate Castor's bass timbre, making quick variations on the main riff.

Speaking of riffs, Rene exerts absolute weight at the beginning of the title track, which also integrates the best of the band's production, with all of them standing out in a rhythm of strong bars. In its sequence comes the excellent "Cursed By Disease", with a chorus of absolute density, where Mayara's guttural disputes, with the timbre of the instruments, the predominance of bass frequencies. Edu Lane, from Nervochaos, participates in this one, doing a narration, and gives way for the entrance of the next guest, Luiz Louzada, from Vulcano, in "You Must Proclaim".

The next tracks, strategically placed at the end of the album, bring the most unusual moments with Alex Camargo, from Krisiun, leading a respectful adaptation of "Just Got Paid" by the unbeatable ZZ Top, and Marcello Schevano, from Carro Bomba, driving the Hammond along with Rene, Amilcar and Castor, in the instrumental "Torture In Progress", formatting an unimaginable Death Prog from the seventies, absolutely brilliant!

Although it is called "Unknown Abyss (intro)", this dark mood piece comes to close the album, with Mayara's voice reviewing all songs. Starting a new phase is not always simple. Sometimes it takes a while to get going, but, in other cases, the formula gets it right the first time, with the interaction between the new elements, generating something that sounds new and full of potential, while preserving all the framework around its already established name. This is the meaning of "Far Beyond Existence" in Torture Squad's discography.

Originally written for https://roadie-metal.com/resenha-torture-squad-far-beyond-existence-2017/