Too bad the fretless bass is hard to hear. Robin sure knows how to play it. The drummer makes the biggest impression though. He’s fast, tight and avoids the biggest cliches. I’m really looking forward to their album.

Blood Red Throne
Blood Red Throne’s main inspiration is clearly Deicide. Not only do they play a Deicide cover, both their sound and songwriting remind me of the American Satanists. Somehow they don’t grab me. In the beginning I’m impressed by their technical abilities. Especially the bass player is sublime; too bad he’s almost inaudible, by the way. But gradually I start loosing interest.

The riffs, breaks and changeovers are just too predictable. But although I’m not the only one, most of the crowd thinks different. That must be said. But I don’t hear anything I haven’t heard several times before in the past ten years.

Severe Torture
I haven’t seen Severe Torture for quite some time. I’ve always felt they were too much of a Cannibal Corpse clone. A good one, but still a bit of clone. That has changed. They really are developing their own style within the death metal genre.

Again there’s a marvelous bass player on stage that’s almost inaudible. Actually, apart from the drums and vocals I hardly hear a thing. The guitars are nothing but some high and bright scratching, there are no real tones. During the show it gets a little better but the sound remains pretty awful all the way through.

Still, that won’t put me off from enjoying Severe Torture. The main thing is that they have matured. They don’t go for the obvious without forcing. The new compositions are more balanced than the older work. Not just a collage of riffs but a build up and a good structure. Nice to see a band continue to grow.

Pics taken from:
www.bloodredthrone.tk
www.monolith-deathcult.com
Pics Severe Torture are from the REZ archives.

(Review: Walter de Korver
Pics: Sebastien Sam)