First of all: this is not the heavily anticipated new album from Severe Torture. In order to fulfil their contract with Karmageddon Media they had one cd left to release so they opted for the classic solution for this problem: a live-album. Bloodletting is a registration of a gig played in Denmark last year and the bonus tracks are a Pestilence cover (“Lost Souls”) and the 1998 demo Baptized. Quite a nice way to end the collaboration with Karmageddon I’d say.

The concert registration has been recorded by Tue Madsen (The Haunted, Exmortem, Mnemic) so a good sound is guaranteed. In fact, the sound is so good that sometimes I lost sight of the fact that these were live recordings. This is my only point of criticism: Severe Torture plays so goddamn tight and the crowd is mixed in so soft that Bloodletting doesn’t have that ‘live feeling’ that makes live albums stand out from the rest of a band’s discography (Decade Of Aggression anyone?).

The Pestilence cover of “Lost Souls” is very close to the original in terms of arrangement but due to Severe Torture’s nature a lot more brutal of course. Vocalist Dennis even tries to sound like Patrick Mameli.

The demo material is outdated in terms of sound quality and song writing but the technical skill of the band clearly shines through in this early state of their existence. These recordings were done with their former singer Eric who also sang in Sinister. He left the band in 1999 to make way for Dennis who I personally like a lot better because he sounds more brutal and has a far better timing. Still, for the diehard Severe Torture fan Bloodletting is an interesting release and a real appetizer for the upcoming full length of which the recordings are taking place right now.