Torn The Fuck Apart – Kill.Bury.Repeat.
Release Date: 6th October 2023
Label: Gore House Productions
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal, All the Death Metal.
FFO: Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy, Deicide, Suffocation.
Review By: Mark Young
As can be seen by the inclusion of a Cannibal Corpse cover as a festering, maggot filled heap of accumulated filth, TTFA sit within that corner of Death Metal where nothing is brutal enough. Creating stories from true life events or from their own psyche is one thing, but being able to set them to music that actually lives up to the content is another.
So, does it? Well you will be happy to hear that there are no ballads, use of the word ‘baby’ or anything like that. What you do get is some of the most vibrant, hectic, blast-beaten to death, grime filled death metal you are likely to hear this year. And that is the key, you can hear everything with a production that is as clear as a bell.
We’ve heard death metal released before that ‘harks back to’ and ‘has a brutal production’ which means you can’t make out what is going on. If a band is telling me that this is their most cohesive, brutal, next level collection then I want to be able to hear it and this is the case here. Drums, guitar, guttural vocals and bottom end are there, without any of those instruments losing anything in production.
Of the songs themselves, they hit like a battering ram. From the kick-off, Corrosive Form lays waste to all in front of it as if it was a weapon of mass destruction itself. There is no drop in intensity here, just 9 songs that back up their claim that this is the next level for them. It’s not just 9 songs of fast here, blast beats there, each track has a particular identity and arrangement, for example the stop-start of A Statement of Malicious Intent that finishes with a riff that seems to come at you on its side before deploying some solid chugging. They really dig into the Death Metal play book with these and there is some insane double bass on Something Went Wrong which also comes forward with some down-picking fun. It’s this changing attack that stops the rot from setting in. Stuck in The Trunk has that Death Metal stomp to it, you will recognize it straight away. It’s also a good example of how they use those little technical touches, dropped in here and there throughout the 9 tracks, that raise the material above just propulsive (or repulsive?) death metal. The title track is a collation of everything here and is an absolute cracker of how they can build songs that fit within the brutal genre without being one note. Great stuff. The later songs chart similar paths but album closer sees them go full tilt with Scratch the Bone which is just storming. That tightness, the changing modes just deliver one of the best metal songs of 2023. This and the title track represent a high watermark, and they should be proud of them, just total quality.
The inclusion of the Cannibal Corpse cover is welcome, but not necessary because the songs are strong enough to stand up for themselves. I would go so far as to say it detracts from the great work they have done, but that is purely a personal view. They have achieved what they set out to do, raising their game in order to move forward and sit at the table with the likes of Dying Fetus et al.
- Corrosive Form
- A Statement of Malicious Intent
- Something Went Wrong
- Stuck in the Trunk
- Submerged in Human Compost
- Kill.Bury.Repeat.
- Dead but Delicious
- Autopsy Report (Inconclusive)
- Scratch the Bone
- Unleashing the Bloodthirsty (Cannibal Corpse
(4 / 5)
