Killing to See How It Feels

Torture Tomb have not yet put out any long releases; in fact, never has more than 10 minutes of material by the American quartet been on the same recording. Killing to See How It Feels comes closest, leaving a 7 second gap to that target with the use of 3 songs, and I’m somewhat relieved I don’t have to sit through 40 minutes of this. Not because Torture Tomb suck, just because the extreme grubbiness of the low grunted vocals and rhythmic grooves takes a lot of energy to concentrate on, as does a pretty grainy production where the guitars seem to shed skin. Hooks sometimes stand out in the murk, as when the title track hits an accented patch of harmonic-enhanced riffing, though it switches to swampy goop a few seconds later to balance the effect.

In general, the content best fits death metal as a descriptor, but I also feel that there may be a tiny hardcore bone somewhere in the putrefying body of Torture Tomb. Streamlined songwriting and chunky stomps on the drums help to change direction quickly, while the overall impression is of a very necrotic yet pretty punishing experience. The relentless slow chug that closes out ‘Everyday You’re Not Running I’m Getting Closer’ (nice title there) characterizes the pure brute force used at times, to say nothing of its mediocre attraction to someone into melody like me. The higher pace of ‘Flesh Feeders’ suits my fancy a bit better. According to the evidence on this EP, killing probably feels exhausting and filthy.