Torture Killer – For Maggots to Devour
Six Feet Under’s latest release, For Maggots To Devour, is a technically perfect death metal album. While it doesn’t gain any new ground in the death metal genre, it doesn’t lose any either. Oops! Did I say Six Feet Under? I meant Torture Killer, of course!
Those who enjoy Six Feet Under (especially Haunted) will totally dig Torture Killer. There is nothing signifcantly different between the two bands’ performances, musical styles, production values or lyrical content. While this may sound like an insult, it’s not; Torture Killer is as tight and heavy as fuck. And since the band named itself after the Six Feet Under song “Torture Killer”, anyone expecting anything but a Six Feet Under tribute is kidding themselves.
The most uncanny similarity between the two bands appears in the vocals. While I’m no death metal expert, I would suspect that even season veterans would have a tough time distinguishing between Liuke’s and Chris Barnes’.
Musically, Torture Killer’s two guitarists team up by laying down some thick-ass mid-paced grindage. The bass is mixed down but serves its purpose as do the drums. Relying more on double kick drums than blast beats, the guys manage to deliver “heavy” on all nine tracks, which weigh in at just over half an hour total. Most of the tracks are introduced by samples from horror movies as well. The band’s performance is catapulted to the next level through the phenominal production. The recording quality of this CD is awesome. Anyone recording death metal (even the big boys) should be comparing their next album to this one.
Fans of the genre know what to expect lyrically. Songs like “Flesh Breaks to Open Wounds”, “Strangulation” and “Fuck Them when They Bleed” are unlikely to appear on any Time Life Christmas compilations any time soon. Lyrical content comes straight from Death Metal 101, and covers topics such as killing, necrophilia, cannibalism, torture … uh, did I mention killing? I guess I could get really specific and say there are songs about killing with knives, killing with guns, killing by torture, killing by strangulation, but you probably get the idea. Besides, if you’re like me, there’s very few vocals you’ll be able to make out without reading the lyrics, and to get to the lyrics you’ll have to get past the cover art which is a bunch of mutant demon babies eating a dead woman’s flesh in a pool of blood. I doubt seriously if anyone would buy this album and not know what they were getting into.
If you’re looking for cutting edge song-writing and the latest in death metal trends, you’re looking at the wrong album. If you’re an old-school death metal fan who dug Six Feet Under’s Haunted album, then For Maggots to Devour is for you. Torture Killer walks a fine line between honoring SFU and covering them, but if that style of music is your bag then eat up!
(The album, not dead people, of course.)
01. Flesh Breaks to Open Wounds (3:40)
02. Sadistic Violation (3:38)
03. Motivated to Kill (4:04)
04. Necrophag (4:00)
05. Fuck Them when They Bleed (3:02)
06. No Time to Bleed (3:38)
07. Torture to Death (4:13)
08. Gore Terror (3:44)
09. Strangulation (4:29)