Tormented - Death Awaits
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the staggering amount of NWOOSSDM bands crawling out of the woodwork these days. What started out as a few groups with Boss HM2 pedals paying a little well-deserved homage to the early ’90s Swedeath greats has turned into a nostalgia epidemic. It’s easy to lose track of all these new old-sounding bands, and it’s difficult not to become disinterested by their sonic sameness. But do not make the mistake of lumping Tormented into this cluster of also-rans. Sure, they’ve only been at it since 2008, with just two full-lengths, an EP, and a split 10-inch under their bulletbelts, but their rich pedigree holds far more clout than the average rehashers. In particular, I’m referring to Swedish scene workhorses Roberth Karlsson (bass) and Andreas “Dread” Axelsson (guitar/vocals). They’ve been involved with a few bands over the last couple decades that maybe you’ve heard of? Edge of Sanity? Marduk? Infestdead? Facebreaker? Any of these ringing a bell? Scar Symmetry? Total Terror? Pan-Thy-Monium? Devian? I could keep going, but I think you catch my drift by now. This is a new wave band with first wave credibility, and you can definitely hear it in the music. The sound they achieve is fantastically authentic to the period, because… well… they were there. Dread’s vocals are especially late-’80s raw, sounding even filthier than they did on Marduk’s legendary Dark Endless. The only thing wrong with Death Awaits is the same hindrance that plagued the band’s 2009 debut: only three great songs. Just as Rotten Death (by now I hope you’ve grasped their primary lyrical theme — eight career songs with “death” or “dead” in the title to this point) gave us “Vengeance from Beyond the Grave,” “Come Back from the Dead,” “Tomb of Corpses,” and not much else, Death Awaits opens with the unholy trinity of the title track, “Blood Orgy,” and “I.O.T.D.” (guess what the “D” stands for) and then rides autopilot the rest of the way. It’s not like the remaining six songs of either album are terrible, just not in the same anthemic league as the aforementioned gems. Tormented’s Nihilistic throwback appeal never wears off, but they don’t attain memorability with enough consistency to maintain “essential” status. Still, when their riffs and vocal patterns are firing on all cylinders, it’s something every self-respecting fan of Swedish Death Metal probably needs to hear.
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