Sewers

Highly exaggerated imagery adorning an album's cover is usually a good indication of the nature of its contents, and it doesn't get more exaggerated than a massive sewer filled with blood and corpses in the place of the expected human waste product. Nevertheless, a sense of guarded optimism is inevitable with even this sort of extreme imagery given that it's Torture Killer, a band that raised the concept of "close, but not quite there" to an art form on their previous studio outing with guest vocalist Chris Barnes at the helm, all but to the point of giving themselves a permanent case of blue balls in the process. But anyone who approaches this band's latest tribute to Six Feet Under Sewers with any degree of pessimism will find themselves in a slightly better place here.

There are two primary things that are working in the band's favor on this album, one of them a general shift in songwriting, the other being their new choice in a front man. While not the household name that Chris Barnes naturally is, Juri Sallinen is a proven workhorse with a sizable list of underground death metal bands to his name, to speak nothing for being able to gel with the band better given that he was touring with them for the 3 years prior to this album's creation. But it isn't all tied up in a vocalist who manages to have a bit more bite to his bark and punch to his gurgles, as the overall musical approach of this band has shifted a bit closer to a pure death metal sound, albeit painted with a modern character and still incorporating a heavy amount of SFU groove trappings.

The overall frequency of pure death metal spurts after the Cannibal Corpse variety are a bit more concentrated, culminating in a bit more than half the album cooking at full speed rather than being stuck in Pantera land for almost two-thirds of the time. The best examples of this contrast are found in the violent opener "Crypts", as well as somewhat jarring "Rats Can Sense The Murder" and the at first creepy, then thrashing closer of a title song "Sewers", but is a general trend that governs much of the album. Things can caught in a really nasty groove rut on "Coffins" and "Scourging At The Pillar", both of which just hammer away at the same handful of tired groove riffs and feature nominally advantageous guitar solos that do little to break up the monotony and vanish rather quickly.

Overall, this is a reasonably solid, albeit predictable and fairly safe mold of death metal that while sufficiently engaging, is also not terribly distinctive. Granted, this band has planted its flag on emulating a band that is not exactly known for wowing the metal faithful, though Six Feet Under continue to be a commercially viable brand so some level of subjective charm is at work that I'm just not picking up. This is a mostly on sort of album, but also one with its fair share of off moments, some of them enveloping entire songs, but mostly just throwing in an occasionally unnecessary stop sign into an otherwise decent song. But for a band that doesn't really manage to break out of the mold, this is there crowning achievement thus far, and definitely the album to get if one is inclined towards the SFU sound.

Six Feet Under is something fairly close to the ICP of the metal world: they aren't particularly mainstream, but they are utterly pedestrian, extremely puerile and obnoxious lyrically, and they have large amounts of stupid fans (though admittedly nowhere near as many as ICP does). Now why, one may ask, would a band choose to pattern themselves after SFU? Answer: Some people are just that fucking stupid. Nevertheless, they've evidently been able to go places just by aping SFU, as their increasing popularity would suggest. Hell, they even got Chris Barnes to do vox on their second album; not like that's anything to be proud of, however, given how far Barnes is from his heyday. Needless to say, though, they lost him, and now they lost their only claim to fame.

Now that I actually have to review this fucker, let me just say this: it's really fucking generic. It's entirely mid-paced material that relies on groove, and lots of it; too bad that said grooves are snore-inducing at best. The drumming is pretty much the same the whole way through, with nothing in the way of variation, and while it is played competently, it's just so unidimensional that it really doesn't matter. The guitars are, again, competently played, but with so much of it consisting of midtempo chugging, it begs one to ask, "What is the point?". Bass is, well... did you actually expect to hear it? Yeah, I didn't either, and my expectations were confirmed, as it is nowhere to be found. Finally, we've got the vocalist. At the very least, he doesn't sound like Barnes, which, when you consider SFU, is a very good thing. At the same time, though, the vocalist isn't terribly good either. I mean, yeah, he's not unbearable, but he's definitely nothing to write home about.

In the end, why give a shit? Yeah, I can understand, these guys love SFU and wanted to emulate them, but really, couldn't they have picked a less shitty band? They'll probably stick on with this and enjoy it anyways, so more power to them, I suppose. Nevertheless, this is one of the most pointless things I've ever heard. It's boring, insipid, brainless, and done with so little to catch the ear that it might as well just be muzak. After all, outside of the fact that it is death metal at its core, this shit has all the right marks for being played in an elevator. Oh well, as long as there are people who will buy it and enjoy it, I suppose we'll be hearing more from these guys.

Torture Killer was formed in 2002, initially as a Six Feet Under cover band (yes those are real, apparently), however quickly started writing original material, and released their first full length in 2004. Torture Killer remained a relatively underground band, until 2006's Swarm! was released. In a weird reverse Tim "Ripper" Owens move, Chris Barnes (Six Feet Under front man) was picked up as their vocalist. While many criticized the vocals, most would agree that Torture Killer's blend of simplistic death metal with groove elements made for quite an enjoyable release. Fast forward three years, and Torture Killer has released their 3rd full length album, Sewers. This time without famed Chris Barnes. How does the band do without Chris, who was arguably what had been holding the band back? Let's find out.

Upon first listens of Sewers, it is painfully clear that Torture Killer is playing it safe. Album opener "Crypts" starts the album off miserably, and the track that follows, "I Bathe In Their Blood", does little to pick the album up. What exactly changed you may be wondering? It's simple, really, the groove elements that had previously made the simplistic DM songs of Swarm! headbang-worthy are now almost completely absent. What is left is death metal that pushes no boundaries. It's neither fast, nor technical, or creative for that matter. "The Art Of Impalement", and "By Their Corpse" (3rd, and 4th track respectively) attempt to pick the album up, but is quickly hit by another bland brick wall ("Coffins").

The latter half of the album attempt to follow the death groove formula, but in the end produce forgettable songs with the exception of title track "Sewers". Though songs "Rats Can Sense The Murder", and "Scourging At The Pillar" are listenable. It's ultimately these few passable songs that salvage Sewers from an even lower rating. Sewers is no doubt a disappointing release, leaving fans wondering what went wrong?

Compared to previous releases, every element with the exception of the vocals, and production appear to have taken steps back. I'm not going to go into each individual instrument involved. Mainly because I know only so many synonyms for the word "bland". Instead I'm going to touch a bit on the vocals.

Newcomer Juri Sallinen is unsurprisingly better than Chris Barnes. This is in part due to the better production which had previously bolstered Barnes' vocals over the instrumentals. The vast majority is done in typical low pitch screams, with the occasion guttural low, or a slightly higher pitch growl. It's rather run of the mill, but is enjoyable in the end.

Sewers is a bitter disappointment. While it isn't terrible (in fact some sections are quite listenable), it's just not worth your time with all of the superb releases this year alone. 2009 was indeed a good year for death metal, and it's recommended that you skip this album.

Torture Killer scored themselves a little attention when they hired Chris Barnes to front their sophomore album Swarm! Like many recent efforts from the Six Feet Under/ex-Cannibal Corpse frontman, I found the quality lacking. This time around, the Finnish death metal outfit have taken on a new vocalist, Juri Sallinen, who is quite prolific with around a half dozen of his own underground projects. Though the guttural vocals are retained here with a style not unlike Barnes in delivery, Sewers trumps Swarm! in nearly every department. Better writing and better grooves.

The style is very much rooted in the old Florida feel of Obituary, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Monstrosity and of corpse Cannibal Corpse. If you fancy this particular train of destruction, you won't want to get off. The songs are intense but never complex, instead fueled by enough groove and drum pummeling that they could turn any standstill band of mopheads into a blood lusting pit of mosh fiends. I haven't moshed in decades but when I hear a track like "I Bathe in Their Blood", "By Their Corpse", or the punishing "Scourging at the Pillar", I felt those prehistoric impulses return to my drying blood.

The mix lends itself well to the lower fretboard focus of the guitars, there is a particular darkness of tone which matches well the loose concept of the album. There are some nice melodic but creepy lead breaks in certain tracks like "Scourging at the Pillar" which create an additional depth to what is otherwise a very basic bludgeoning style. Torture Killer have outdone themselves to produce a good death metal album, and I do hope they will continue to flesh out this approach.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com