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TORTURE HAMMER
Dormant Horror (2024)

Some seriously heavy death metal comes your way with this four-song demo from Santa Cruz, California-based Torture Hammer. This is another heavyweight act to add to the repulsive roster and while they may not be as swampy as so many, the crushing tidal riffs more than make up for it.

Torture Hammer also veer towards a grind aesthetic on ‘Shrieks From The Crypt’, particularly with the blasting drums and smeared vocal gurgles, so you basically get four grinding death tracks dripping with meaty riffs and peppered with blast beats and tin can slapping. I always prefer the slower, groggier stuff with bands like this and Torture Hammer doesn’t disappoint. ‘Vengeful Spirit’ boasts an infectious rhythm as the riffs murkily meander to the backbone of drums, while the vocals are deeper, slower and grim. A hyperblast lurks around the corner, however, and are also echoed during the latter stages of ‘Lead Poisoning’, but with this track Torture Hammer holds off from the pace for some time and flattens us with a rotten chugging.

If and when these guys get round to recording a full-length album I hope that most of it is based around slower passages, but I’m sure, as closer ‘Body Broken, Brain Open’ showcases, it will most likely centre around a lethal mix of punishing grinding and pustular pace, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

For those of you interested, the Dormant Horror demo is available here.

Neil Arnold

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