The Unholy Spell

Well, I can say that I should have heard this album before I heard “Pandemonium”. When I had listened to that straight forward kickass piece of thrash which “Pandemonium” is, I certainly wanted to know what other Torture Squad albums sound like. And so as I ran across this one at Wacken Metal Market, I picked it up immediately and couldn’t wait till I get to hear it. And here’s what I got:

Of course, a huge fuckin’ load of real metal! You probably could ask what makes it so “metal”? Firstly, it’s tons of crushing heavy riffs that automatically make you bang along; secondly, the totally insane snarls and growls – a stunning vocal performance. Thirdly, it’s all supported by ultraprecise and technical drum work. All this as well as a decent production make “The Unholly Spell” a well done aggressive deathy thrash metal album that is always pleasure to listen to.

But why I can’t say it is as awesome as their next album, “Pandemonium”? Mostly because “The Unholy Spell” sounds somewhat immature compared to it. The songs lack consistency a little bit; yes, they are complex, with lots of breaks and tempo changes, but sometimes the the different parts just don’t fit together very well – the headbanging feel often gets interrupted too soon. Although I don’t consider this to be a major flaw overall, it can get a little disturbing. Another thing that isn’t exactly the best one – the solos, IMHO there are too few of them. On the whole it seems like Toture Squad were still developing their songwriting skills with this album yet.

All in all it’s still a very good album, it is like jewel that needs to get polished. As for the standout tracks I’d pick the title song “The Unholy Spell”, “Welcome Home (The House of Eternal Night)” and “Under the Wings of Empire”. No throwaway tracks or fillers on here, except for the bonus track – “A Soul in Hell”, recorded live, because of quite poor record quality (bass isn’t audible at all and in general this sounds like from the horses arse). And yeah, I almost forgot to mention that “The Unholy Spell” has cool cover art (painting by Jean Delville, circa 1900).