Rating: 6.7

Country: Malta

Release Date: 2006

Record Label: Brutal Bands

Track list:
1. Relapse Into Sickness
2. Addicted to Smothered Throats
3. Flayed, Dismembered and Feasted Upon
4. Wretched Stagnant Blood
5. Befouled with Zest
6. Epoch of Methodic Carnage [mp3]
7. Death Bound Conundrum
8. Lurid Iniquity
9. Battered Into Nothingness
10. Gratification Through Castration

Band Website: Abysmal Torment

Abysmal Torment - Epoch of Methodic Carnage

Nicky Farrugia - Vocals
Gordon Formosa - Vocals
David Depasquale - Guitars
Wayne Vella - Drums
Tim Vella Briffa - Bass

Epoch of Methodic Carnage is the second release by this incredibly brutal death band from Malta, better known in this world as the land of the mighty Beheaded. With that said, curiosity coupled with high expectations were bound to stretch your underwear. So with great glee I rubbed my sticky hands, shook hands with my eager confined friend and set this disc into motion.

The album commences with a brief intro that is followed with the hitting of the snares, first done teasingly then escalating alarmingly into devastative blasting, in a fashion similar to Cryptopsy. And then it begins. It's like someone taking hold of your head and shaking it so violently that your eyeballs get pulled in and begin rattling against the insides of your skull (mind you, the prospect of a brain in a br00tal metaller's head is most unlikely). This along with some external punching continues for about 40 minutes and fans of hyper blasting br00tal death metal are likely to enjoy it. However those like me who were expecting brutal death of the class of Beheaded (aah, Recounts of Disembodiment) will be left sorely disappointed. That's because this is just the same redundant blasting type of American brutal death metal in the vein of bands like Disgorge, Cinerary, Decrepit Birth, Liturgy, Brodequin, etc. Apart from that, touches of Dying Fetus and Commit Suicide could also be felt over here, but they barely make a difference.

And it's not like Abysmal Torment live up to their name; they're not dumb like the new ultrafast and brutal wannabes. Remarkably, there is some thought given to their song structures and they generally have some idea of what they have to do; it's just that they don't end up doing it well enough. It seems as if they're trying to make up in speed for whatever is lost in quality. And when it's speed we're talking about, a large chunk of the credit should go to their drummer. He's fucking all over the place, relentlessly beating the living shit out of his kit as if it were an Indian wife. Oh, he's fucking good. The vocals for a change are not “ree-ing” throughout and sound similar to the ones done by Dying Fetus on Destroy The Opposition, only a million times more angry and abrasive. They are both grunted and guttural and scrape like an old razor on a stiff beard. The production is clear and powerful and packs a mind-numbing punch but the guitars (having a rad tone nonetheless) are almost smothered by the others, or maybe that's deliberate because apart from the chugs and breakdowns they're hardly doing anything worthwhile.

The good thing about Abysmal Torment is that they don't chug out completely like some brutal USDM bands. Instead they rightly create build-ups for them chugs and breakdowns, and when unleashed, it comes like a lash of a thick leather whip on your ass making you jump and wail like a tiny little bitch. But the problem is that they waste TOO much time in doing so - often around four minutes per song! As a result you have a hell lot of filler crap to contend with. It's like listening to your favourite channel on a remote highway - you really do want to listen to it, but most of your time is spent listening to static. Eventually you'd want to shut it, especially when it goes on for as long as 40 fucking minutes.

Abysmal Torment possess the ability to thrill you with blistering speed, toss you around with killer breakdowns, have good production values, decent vocals and a very talented drummer, but they really lack the ability to write good riffs, and sadly, that's paramount. If they manage to learn that, they will not only tear new holes in your ass, they'll form tunnels in them. Until then you will have to put up with this.

May 1st, 2006