Ready for Tortured?
Formed in 2019 internationally, the band now comprising Flo Butcher (vocals, Balance of Terror, Relics of Humanity), Oscar Ortega (guitar/bass, Cystectomy, Ergosphere, Scatology Secretion…), Alexandre Giorgi (bass, Darkall Slaves) and Frank Smith (drums, Rot Spewer, Septycemia, Sopor) is releasing Genetically Engineered Monstrosity, its debut album, on Comatose Music in 2023.
Illustrated by Jon Zig (Abominable Putridity, Deeds of Flesh, Corpsefucking Art, Defeated Sanity…) and mixed/mastered by Alexander Borovykh (Carnophage, Devangelic, Epicardiectomy, Kraanium…), the album begins in typical Brutal Death fashion with a sample of Bathing in Pus, quickly followed by massive riffs and greasy, guttural howls. The mix perfectly honors Old School influences as well as more modern tones, letting complex patterns answer to moshparts just as on Raised by Punishment, which once again floods us with its distinctive blast sound. Jerky riffs are incredibly effective, letting the instrumental combine with the vocal parts to break our necks before Human Bait rolls over us, completing the jerky riffs with a double-kick roll. The slower pachydermic parts are just as devastating as the frantic charges leading up to Mushed Up, a track giving us a few moments to catch our breath before being trampled again by the crushing rhythm. Eponymous track Genetically Engineered Monstrosity follows, pinning us to the floor once more before molesting us with its heavy relentless riffs, just as Barbaric Impalement with a slightly higher tempo, strengthening this feeling of a continuous tornado of blows from which we can only briefly escape at the end of the track, just before Boiled to Death takes over to continue assaulting us with its raging riffs. The sudden break only strengthens the violence which is easily spread via the continuous rhythm, then via the short Devouring What’s Left of You and its unhealthy but extremely catchy groove, and finally on Gruesome Chastisement, which closes the album with impressive riffs which only cease to let moshparts crush us one last time.
Don’t look for anything than high-level violence with Tortured. Genetically Engineered Monstrosity will expose us to its sheer brutality to half an hour of molestation and massive complexity, with the sole aim of laying us on the ground.
85/100