SATURDAY SLAUGHTER, SWEDISH STYLE: TORTURE DIVISION, MORDBRAND, PAGANIZER, JOHANSSON & SPECKMANN

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Dec 272014
 

 

It’s been a little while since I posted some real Swedish fucking death metal on the site, long enough that I was starting to get the shakes, the night sweats, the dry mouth, and the volcanic gut rumbles. So I decided to do something about it. I’m tending to my needs, and bringing you some slaughter for your Saturday at the same time. But as you’ll find out, this is also a very bittersweet post for me to write.

TORTURE DIVISION

I first discovered Torture Division in March 2011, when they released a cover of Mastodon’s “Iron Tusk” from the Leviathan album, accompanied by an introduction that included these words:

“This is how we would have made this song, had we written it in the first place. But we didn’t, we just thought it would be nice to MASTODON to make a proper tune out of it. Kidding, kidding… MASTODON‘s cool. They are no TORTURE DIVISION, but hey — can’t win them all.”

I became an immediate fan, and have remained one in the years that followed (you can still hear that “Iron Tusk” cover in the first Mordbrand feature I prepared). I wrote about most of their other releases over the last three years (collected here) and liked every goddamn one of them. And now, sad to say, I’m writing about their final effort. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: TORTURE DIVISION — “THE REAPING”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jun 272014
 

Well, this is a damned fine way to end the damned work week — with the release of yet another free demo by Sweden’s Torture Division. This new one is named The Reaping.

As followers of the band know, they periodically release demos for free, and each time they complete a trilogy of demos they package them up for release on a compilation CD. In 2013, Torture Division released two demos, both of them (as usual) mixed and mastered by the masterful Dan Swanö at Unisound. The first one was named The Worship, and I reviewed it here. The second one was The Sacrifice, and I reviewed that one, too. And then I also picked one of the 2013 songs — “All Rise” — for my list of 2013’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.

The Reaping completes the latest trilogy of Torture Division releases. This one was also mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö, and in addition to providing a free download of the songs in mp3 format, this time Swanö has prepared a download file of the songs in full dynamic range FLAC format for the audiophiles out there. So go thank Mr. Swanö by liking his Unisound Facebook page, dammit!

And while you’re in a thankful mood, go throw some money at Torture Division via this link so they’ll continue showering us with the best goddamned death metal masterpieces the world has ever known (I know these are masterpieces because Torture Division says so, dammit!).

And now, for a few words about The Reaping. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2013’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 18

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2013  3 Responses »
Feb 022014
 

Here’s the 18th Part of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the songs I’m announcing today, click here.

I’m adding three tunes to this evolving and potentially never-ending list today. Once again, I’ve grouped these songs together for a reason. Here’s a hint: Fucking Death Metal. Death Fucking Metal. Metal Fucking Death.

TORTURE DIVISION

The three members of this Swedish band – Lord K Philipson (guitar), Tobben Gustafsson (drums), and Jörgen Sandström (bass/vocals) — collectively have over 60 years of combined death metal experience, including membership in bands such as Grave, Entombed, Vicious Art, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Vomitory, and God Among Insects. Their modus operandi is to release short demos and give them away for free on their web site. Every time they finish releasing a group of three demo’s, they package them up and release them as a compilation CD.

In 2013, Torture Division released two demos, both of them (as usual) mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound. The first one was named The Worship, and I reviewed it here. The second one was The Sacrifice, and I reviewed that one, too. They’re both sooooo damned good — crushing guitar and bass tone, bone-breaking percussion, bestial vox, irresistible grooves, grisly infectious melodies, both hard-charging and doomy as a dank crypt, with riffs and rhythms that will make you bang your head so goddamned hard it will come off and bounce around your room like a tennis ball. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: TORTURE DIVISION — “THE SACRIFICE”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Nov 242013
 

Two days ago Torture Division released their latest offering of “the world’s best death metal”, The Sacrifice. I’ve written about Torture Division so often at this site that explaining who they are and their approach to releasing music runs a high risk of redundancy, yet there’s always the slim chance that a few lost souls are discovering them for the first time. For them, here’s the back story:

The three members of this Swedish band – Lord K Philipson (guitar), Tobben Gustafsson (drums), and Jörgen Sandström (bass/vocals) — collectively have over 60 years of combined death metal experience, including membership in bands such as Grave, Entombed, Vicious Art, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Vomitory, and God Among Insects. Their modus operandi is to release short demos and give them away for free. Every time they finish releasing a group of three demo’s, they or a record label package them up and sell them as a compilation CD. So far, this has happened three times; the latest compilation, The Army of Three, was released as a digipack earlier this month and has already sold out.

In June of this year, Torture Division gave away the first three-song demo in a new trilogy. That one was named The Worship, and I reviewed it here. The new one, which was again mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound, delivers three new songs — “Queen Sacrifice”, “Fähund”, and “Flesh Before My Eyes”. Continue reading »

TORTURE DIVISION AND BENT SEA: “DOUBLE PENETRATION”

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Jul 132013
 

It was barely more than a month ago when Torture Division released their latest three-song assault on the senses (The Worship, reviewed here), and damned if they aren’t already back with another release. And damned if they don’t have company this time, because Double Penetration is a split release by Torture Division and Bent Sea, which is another super-group, and one we haven’t heard from in a while.

I had to crawl all the way back to November 2011 to find the post I wrote about Bent Sea’s debut album, Nostalgia. At that point the band consisted of guitarist/drummer Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork, Scarve), vocalist Sven de Caluwe (Aborted), and bassist Devin Townsend (you read that right). Devin Townsend didn’t participate in Bent Sea’s contribution to Double Penetration, his shoes having been filled by none other than Napalm Death’s Shane Embury.

The Bent Sea track is a ditty called “Partners In Grind”. It’s a bone-shaker and a neck-snapper, a death-grind marauder with a beastly off-tempo mid-section. I’ve taken the liberty of uploading it to our Soundcloud account so you can hear it. And then of course you should go download it from Torture Division’s web site (more on that later). Continue reading »

GO WORSHIP “THE WORSHIP” BY TORTURE DIVISION

 Album Reviews, Free Shit, Metal News, SHORT BUT SWEET  6 Responses »
Jun 042013
 

Fuckin’ Torture Division have just released a new, free, three-song demo — The Worship — and it fuckin’ destroys, as pure Grade A undiluted death metal should.

For those who somehow remain ignorant about Torture Division, here’s a quick primer: The three members of the band – Lord K Philipson (guitar), Tobben Gustafsson (drums), and Jörgen Sandström (bass/vocals) — collectively have over 60 years of combined death metal experience, including membership in bands such as Grave, Entombed, Vicious Art, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Vomitory, and God Among Insects.  In their words, “we know what we do, we love what we do and that we will keep on doing it until the end of days.”

They also have an unusual approach to recording and distributing their music. Their modus operandi is to release short demos and give them away for free. And today they made available The Worship as the latest installment in the series. It was again mixed and mastered by the masterful Dan Swanö, and is now available for download (along with a booklet) from his Unisound web site.

But first, you really need to read Torture Division’s introduction to The Worship, which is funny as shit. Plus, if you love what Torture Division are doing and how they’re doing it, as I do, then you need to throw them a donation to help finance the continuation of this fine demolition project. And to do both of those things, go HERE. Continue reading »

NEWS AND NEW MUSIC FROM TORTURE DIVISION

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 032013
 

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Sweden’s Torture Division (pictured above), and some of you may be unfamiliar with them. Allow me to fix that. The three members of the band – Lord K Philipson (guitar), Tobben Gustafsson (drums), and Jörgen Sandström (bass/vocals) — collectively have over 60 years of combined death metal experience, including membership in bands such as Grave, Entombed, Vicious Art, The Project Hate MCMXCIX, Vomitory, and God Among Insects.  In their words, “we know what we do, we love what we do and that we will keep on doing it until the end of days.”

They also have an unusual approach to recording and distributing their music. Their modus operandi is to release short demos and give them away for free. In fact, they have no plans to record an album — ever. However, every time they finish releasing a group of three demo’s, they’ve been giving labels permission to package them up and sell them as compilation CDs. So far, this has happened twice (two CDs have been released, each collecting three demo’s). The next compilation, The Army of Three, will include their two most recent demos plus some additional tracks and will be released by Abyss Records.

Based on a recent statement on their FB page, Torture Division also plan to release three new 3-track demos in 2013, as well as two split releases (one with Asphyx that will include a brand new track as well as a cover song, and a second split about which details haven’t yet been revealed). But while we’re waiting for all of this, Torture Division have just given all of us a stand-alone song for free download called “Gimp Grind”. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: TORTURE DIVISION – “SATAN, SPRIT OCH VÅLD””

 Album Reviews  14 Responses »
Feb 132012
 

You gotta love the badassery on display in this photo.

A big thank-you to byrd36 (Death Metal Baboon) for his recent NCS comment reminding me to check in with Sweden’s Torture Division, because they have recently released yet another very fine — and very free — demo (or you could call it an EP, if you prefer).

byrd36’s comment was in the context of a post discussing the relative merits and demerits of EPs and full-length albums and the strategy of releasing more frequent but shorter collections of music rather than more widely-spaced album-length collections. Torture Division’s practice is to release short demos and give them away for free. In fact, they have no plans to record an album — ever.

However, every time they finish releasing a group of three demo’s, they’ve been giving labels permission to package them up and sell them as compilation CDs. So far, this has happened twice (two CDs have been released, each collecting three demo’s). The demo that they’ve just released is the second in the current run of three. So, presumably after they release the third demo, we’ll see yet another compilation CD.

Here’s the answer they give on their web site to the question “What’s the goal with this?” Continue reading »

A MISHMASH

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  21 Responses »
Mar 242011
 

The word “mishmash” popped into my head when I was thinking about a title for this post. I thought I knew what it meant, but to be sure, I checked the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. It defined “mishmash” as “hodgepodge, jumble”. That was really fucking helpful. I hate it when a dictionary defines one word by using other words that are just as opaque.

The same source explained that the word could have derived from the combination of two Middle English words (mysse and masche) or perhaps from the “reduplication” of the Yiddish word mishn, meaning “to mix”. That made me wonder what the difference is between “duplication” and “reduplication”. REduplication sounds REdundant, but what do I know.

Anyway, I gave up on Merriam-Webster and tried another dictionary, which proved more helpful. It defined “mishmash” as: “A messy or confused mixture of different things.” Which explained why the word popped into my head, since my head is itself a messy and confused mixture of things. That definition did confirm that I’d come up with the right post title, because the music I’m serving up today is definitely a messy and confused collection. It could also be a hodgepodge and a jumble, but I’ve lost patience looking up word definitions at the moment, so I don’t know for sure.

Today I won’t make you guess about the music. The songs on offer are from Torture Division (Sweden), Hellen (Arizona) (pictured above), and Vile (California). I recommend them. They are a mishmash of innervating metal. They will also turn the organ you think with into a mishmash. You may even be reduplicated. (songs after the jump . . .) Continue reading »