Death is June - Torture Rack : "Primeval Onslaught"

 

This month in focusing on death metal I am trying to hit every corner of the genre, including the sub-genres like Death Core and Grind Core than split off from Death Metal. I am also trying to not play it too safe and just cover the most easily defined tried and true death metal, even if it comes from younger bands like Portland Oregon's Torture Rack, who is shamelessly no frills death metal. Every city has a band like this , and  to be honest it is too straight forward for me , but I found myself two songs into the album so I had to press on. The vocals are a dry growl that sits back against the guitars. The guitars sound like they just plugged in and played. 

Influence wise Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse are the most obvious, and I do not listen to a great deal of death metal like this so if you said Deceased and Broken Hope are also bands these guys are into, I would agree, though if you say Cannibal Corpse do you even have to mention Broken Hope as those guys feel like Cannibal Corpse tribute band to me, more than these guys do. By "Forced From the Pit" everything is being to blur together in a soup of gutturals and double bass. My main complaint about this brand of death metal is all the sounds are colored by the same shade of  hyper aggressive blood red. The fifty second "Morning Star Massacre" is a brisk blast of compacted chugs that bury the vocals in their own remains. 

Then the blasting gives way to more memorable grooves thanks to the riffing of "Victims of Inquisitors" . The song titles are haphazard at this point as very few of the lyrics can be discerned. Despite this it might be the album's best song so far. "Bone Snare" plays to some of the same strengths , if they are able to resist pouring on speed. Spoiler alert , they are not. 'Fucked By Death' is a great song title and it carries a more punk feel to it. These guys also play in Witch Vomit, Were Goat and Skeletal Remains, so they raw , rough and tumble quality of sound from those bands still plays a role here. By "Impalement Storm" I am growing bored with this. They play it pretty safe and stick to the basics, in a manner than dulls the danger. 

They keep their foot on the gas and blast ahead for the last song, that does dig up a few Morbid Angel sounding riffs in places. I will round this down to a 7.5, as I have already head this done better back in the late 80s. These guys would do better to take more chances and find themselves rather than invest in a career that is simply a tribute to what bands before them accomplished.