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October 12, 2008 |
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01. Intro
02. New World Terror
03. Tormentation
04. Porn Casting (P.C.)
05. Laws Of The Street
06. In The Name
07. Traitor's Fate
08. Politically Incorrect (And Damn Proud Of It)
09. Shop 'Til Ya Drop
10. The Calling
11. Not Dead Yet
12. Woman
13. Tribute To Traci (T. T. T.)
14. State Of War
15. Please Don't Touch
16. Bestial Sex
17. Heavy Metal Hooligans
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"Worship at the altar of MOTÖRHEAD & VENOM" inquires the not-so-subtle yellow sticker on the cover. "Meh, not especially. Thank you, drive through", I reply in kind. Several attempted listens later that still pretty much sums it up better than anything. Those annoying stickers on the front of CDs that emphasize unoriginality by comparing the disc to bands that have already tackled that sound before tend to be extremely irritating, but in the end that's exactly what it comes down to with "Tormentation". That right there poses a problem for me, because while I won't hesitate to appreciatively acknowledge the impact MOTÖRHEAD and VENOM had on the world of Metal and on innumerable bands I consider to be favorites, I can honestly say that neither have had any direct impact on me; so why would I want to hear someone regurgitating it all over again 20 years later?
And this is total MOTÖRHEAD worship here - the songs have an occasional smattering of distinct guitar riffs (like the intro to the title track "Tormentation") and a definite bite to the distortion, but more often than not are composed of repetitive, bastardized Punk beats heaped over the top of mediocre Thrash tempos, equally unvarying drums and bass, and off-key, punk-laced, obnoxious spoken vocals that, much like Lemmy, have about as much tone and melody as NEIL YOUNG after a tracheotomy. But I understand that such a sound holds appeal to some people, and if you're one of those people who has a special place in your heart for the under-produced, repetitive ridiculousness of the Punk/Thrash hybrids that both came to fruition and died out in the '80s underground, then TORMENT will be a 25 year old retro blast from the past you might be able to sink both teeth into.
Personally, I can't hang. I have a low tolerance for this particular mixture of grating "vocals", over-indulged musical redundancy and muddy production to begin with, but "Tormentation" tries to force over an hour of this broken record approach into your ears over a blur of 18 increasingly annoying, much-too-long-for-anybody's-good tracks. It gets to a point (and it doesn't take long - maybe by the 5th song) where the occasionally distinct riffs mentioned above have no positive effect whatsoever, mired as they are in an all-consuming sludge of monotonous ineffectuality. Being Punk-fueled, there is a definitive presence of the brash humor Punk is known for with songs like "P.C. (Porn Casting)", "Bestial Sex" and "Heavy Metal Hooligans", but I get my chuckle from reading the titles, and by the time the songs even start the appeal has already worn off.
On top of that, there are completely ridiculous songs like "Shop 'Til Ya Drop", which doesn't matter one iota whether it's tongue in cheek or not, because the lyrics are short-bus quality regardless of whether they mean it or not: "You don't know what's going on, the urge grows so strong. Like a corpse without a soul, your animal instinct takes control. Can't fight the feeling, can't stand the lust, you just gotta shop 'til you drop." Er, okay...so what exactly compelled you to write a song about women and their uncontrollable urge to buy crap? Is there some profound, hidden aspect that makes this superficial subject Metal-worthy material? If so then I'm sure a song about how long women take to put their make-up on in the mornings would make prime material for a rockin' Metal anthem!
And then there's the gem "Not Dead Yet": "After work we meet to play, Thrash 'n' Roll like every day; but our rehearsal room is shit, the rent grows we need a hit, and still we suffer in this pit." Omigod! Totally! Like, Thrash 'n' Roll like every day, dude! Fer sher! Yeah, you guys really need another hit. And of course there's also the laughable cover of the NON-HUMAN LEAGUE song "Woman", but I'm not even going to go there - I've said too much already.
I've tried to give this disc the full chance - I've made no less than 15 attempted listens to try to salvage something noteworthy out of it, but apart from a couple decent riffs that I noticed on the first couple of listens, there's still nothing to compensate for how much time I've wasted trying to get into this bomb. In the end, all I can say is that the band is aptly titled; trying to sit through 60+ minutes of this stuttering, empty nonsense is nothing short of ruthlessly vindictive TORMENT.
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