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Torturer - Oppressed by the Force
Review: Melding together numerous genres and adding a discipline of their own fury, Torturer make melodic speed metal not dissimilar to a more technical and articulate Metallica with a vocal track that matches the treble peak of shriek which Swedish death/black metal bands currently use. Their essential approach is to cluster riffs and knead them together over iterations, and the diversity and structural intent stamp the output which while rolling across the spectrum returns to its fundamental parts.
Heavy metal riffs with a muffled strum technique covering either buckling power chord staccato blasts or electric lances of lead guitar playing, played to the driving constant or double-hit beats of a speed metal band, motivate each song into flywheel balance until it explodes in melodic choruses and raging bridges to closure. Mid-tempo or alertly rapid but not blurred, song narrative charges along lines of its basic themes which introduced in sequence, are mirrored later by similar shapes or tonal ideas. Hints of Iron Maiden, Slayer and something like D.B.C. flavor a range of stylistic technique covering three generations of metal.
While not as extreme as its vocals, this release borrows heavily from death metal linguistics, most notably Swedish melodic death metal and the thunderous simplicity from the American south. Its soloing is articulate while indulgent, balancing a tendency toward compressing a good deal of complexity into a short period of time and the abrupt transitions employed thrash style in direct adaptivity after interruption. Its essential resource is its energy and the creative fingering that configures these myriad riffs from the same basic elements.
Listenable as wavelike momentum and somewhat confusing for employing a polyglot of similar metal styles, this release shows a band of great promise fashioning from the cast off elements of "world metal" something which will evolve into its own voice over time. The commanding yet sparing use of melody and quirky test flight tempo changes presents a space to introduce variation and at its extension, centrality. Capitalizing on this, these Chilean adventurers control attention long enough to present new worlds to explore, and dive in.