Severe Torture "Fall of the Despised" (Earache)
By Kenny Irwin
Thursday. Jan 19, 11:12 AM
Sickeningly fast, gutteral death metal.

WARNING: Severe Torture are on some sort of methamphetamine and they are coming to kill you! Okay, probably not, but look out anyway just in case. Severe Torture are an insanely fast, technically sick death metal band from the Netherlands. They must not be into any of that sweet hash or whacky tobacky though, cuz you will not hear any sort of stoner rock or slow jams in their shit.

Fall of the Despised is this Dutch five-piece’s third album. They are a pretty well-known death metal band who have toured a lot with a number of pretty big bands (including Cannibal Corpse) and have even played over here in the States (including the 2002 New England Metal and Hardcore Fest). Founded in ’97, Severe Torture have paid their dues going through all the bullshit of both band and label changes.

My big gripe with death metal bands, usually, is the vocals, which is by the far the biggest downfall of Severe Torture and their new album. It kills me when I hear such amazing metal destroyed by monotonous gargling sounds. But these musicians are fucking sick, and every song is tighter than the other. Drummer Seth should be tested for steroids, cuz this guy hardly ever stops, going a million miles an hour throughout the entire album. Right off the bat on “Endless Strain of Cadavers,” he seems to hit all of his drums and cymbals at the same time. When the song fully kicks in, he’s off to the races with his snare and ride cymbal. The guitarists play together really well, bringing in those crazy fast riffs tightly as well as holding it down when one of them go off into sololand for a second (see “Dead From the Waist Up” especially). Also, there are some sick pitch harmonics on “Unconditional Annihilation” that open the song nicely, as well as on “Enshrined in Madness” which is the closest thing the band has to a slow type jam on the record (my personal favorite). Maybe this is when they took their smoke break?

Overall, I would say if you’re into fast death metal bands with low, growling singing like Cannibal Corpse or Broken Hope, pick up Fall of the Despised. They are definitely all really good musicians and play tight as hell.
www.severetorture.com
www.earache.com

Listen to a song from this album in our Radio section!

Kenny Irwin

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