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Severe Torture is one of those bands that never really defies the listener's expectations. It's been roughly ten years since the band's debut full-length album Feasting on Blood hit store shelves, and since then each release from the band has been as intense as the last, and over time showing that the band had found their own style of Death Metal as compared to the group's heavily Cannibal Corpse inspired roots. This isn't to say the band doesn't take anything from their roots and inspirations anymore, as that could still be heard throughout their fifth studio full-length offering, Slaughtered, but this more refined sound has created an unstoppable Death Metal force that, once again, doesn't disappoint, but at the same time is a bit too consistant. Slaughtered winds up being another solid Death Metal release, even though it doesn't really have a lot of variety to the music. Much of the album basically has the same feel as the first song does until about half way through the album. Much of Slaughtered is done at a mid-tempo pace that often branches off into a faster pace with controlled drumming. Of course, no each song sounds like one another and there is still some variet in the mix here, such as "Grave Condition" which actually adds variety to it's self due to the song because rather fast with those aforementioned controlled drumming moments scattered about, but winds up slowing down later on near the closing of the song into a more technical approach, while "Unholy Misconception" and "Deride Jesus" wind up moving at a generally mid-tempo pace throughout without any real changes in speed that dramatically impact the flow of the song. After this, the rest of the album seems to flow between both the mid and fast paced music, often incorporating blast beats, with guitars that chug along and never seem to stop or offer any real variety to the mix outside of an occassional bridge or solo that takes the song in a different direction for a short amount of time, with exception to "Inferior Divinity" which moves at a much slower pace then anything else on this release and, thanks to the dual layered vocals, this track winds up standing tall by it's self. However, this album is definitely strong musically as far as intensity and consistancy goes. While there's a serious lack of variety throughout the album, with only a few instances that really seem to shake things up, there's still plenty of good songs on here that hit the listener hard, like the aforementioned "Inferior Divinity" and "Grave Condition". However, those two tracks really aren't all that this album has to offer. Slaughtered winds up having other tracks that are well done, such as "Defective Fornication" thanks to it's speed and intense presentation, as well as "Swallowing Decay" which winds up feeling like one of the tracks on here that got the most attention from the band and really has more intensity then the rest of the album, as well as has some simpler guitar riffs compared to other tracks on here. Much like many other tracks on this release, these song really grab the listener thanks to the more slower paced guitar performance against the heavy, fast, and sometimes chaotic drum work that really winds up making the album what it is. "Incarnation of Impurity" is a song that winds up falling both in the impressive and poor category, as the song is one of the more intense tracks on here and, thanks to the way the song is structure and performed, can sometimes leave the listener feeling tense, just waiting for the music to continue building much like that of the atmospheric music or effects used in a slasher film to warn of the killer's presence to only the audience. However, at the same time, this song can often delay the builed up by continuing at a certain level for much longer then it is necessary, mostly after you reach the halfway mark, leaving the track feeling a little drawn out compared to the rest of the album. Aside that, "Inferior Divinity", which is actually a pretty good song, falls prey to this same situation. The slower paced music on this song makes this track stand out and make it one of the heavier tracks on the recording, but at the same time there points in the song that, after a while, feel drawn out and like the song could have ended ages ago. "To Relieve the Mortal Flesh of Pain" is another track worth mentioning here, simply because it feels a little odd, especially this little interlude is bled into by "Incarnation of Impurity" by one or two brief seconds, and sounds as if it were still part of that track, but at the same time when it picks up from the more acoustic sound, it really winds up working out well for the song and makes it sound like a haunting interlude that had great potential to be a full-length song. What Slaughter truly has going for it is that it's an album practically composed of intense music that stays consistant from start to finish with only a few slight variances throughout the release. However, the variety aspect of this album doesn't quite live up to anyoe's standards and winds up causing plenty of songs and moments within them to sound familiar of tracks before and after it on the track list. This extreme amount of consistancy leaves this release one that has some good, intense tracks from Severe Torture throughout, but at the same time, causes this one to just become rather repetitive and cause the listener to just stand back and, by the second, maybe third playthrough, decide that they are done with it and leave it to collect dust. |
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