Tormented- Rotten Death

Tormented is a Swedish old school death metal band that formed in 2008. They are fairly new and have only released this full-length and a split. With that being said Axelsson and Karlsson make up half of the band. Given their past endeavors in death metal it should go without saying that these guys know what they are doing. This is clear when listening to their debut full-length Rotten Death. Clocking in at just over thirty minutes, Tormented will have you begging for more when all is said and done.

The album is filled with awesome riffs and lyrics. Hellish tremolo picked sections show up quite often and stick in the listeners head long afterwards. The thick, heavy production on Rotten Death just screams evil. This fits perfectly with the style being played here. Infectious tracks like "Tomb of Corpses" and "Come Back From the Dead" will have you shrieking along in no time. A large portion of Rotten Death is face paced, but slower tracks like "Blood of the Undead" prove to be just as effective. The heaviness of that track is earthshattering to say the least, making it one of the highlights of the album.

Axelsson's vocals are nasty and demanding. His vocal approach makes every single lyric easy to decipher and it really adds to the catchiness of the album. Every time I listen to this all I can imagine is a big crowd of people chanting the choruses. This really adds to the overall "fun factor" of the album which to be honest is a huge part of what makes this release so great. The replay value is through the roof and it is simply because you have a blast every time you play it. None of the tracks get old, and they all have their own set of qualities.

Overall Rotten Death is a solid old school death metal album. Tormented didn't set out to create anything groundbreaking with this release, they set out to create a fun-filled death metal album. In my eyes they were very successful. Fans of old school death metal should definitely check this out. Don't go into this album expecting anything similar to Edge of Sanity or you will be severely disappointed. To put it simply Tormented play a raw, no bullshit brand of death metal. Hopefully Tormented's next release will be up to par with Rotten Death. If it is it will most definitely have a place in my collection.