For a while, it seemed like death metal tried to become the thinking man’s genre. The rise of tech and prog death alike certainly was a countermovement against the simultaneous rise of metal- and deathcore and what many people perceived as a watering down of the style. Ironically, this made us move further away from the source and another counter movement was needed: caveman death metal has been on the rise for a while and is the quintessential style of death metal for many, even if most of the bands sound nothing like the originators.
Torture Rack are in the lineage of bands like Undergang for sure. Their music has a slight hardcore bent and ultimately just revolves around beating people up aurally. This, again, is true for many of these acts as the only way to make music this simple work is to go dirtier and punkier. Torture Rack do not quite play with the big boys, though, and there isn’t all too much that will differentiate them from the myriad of acts now playing this style. This doesn’t mean that there is nothing to enjoy, ofc. The bass is enjoyably present and often when the band changes the rhythmic feel on a dime, it can enhance the individual riffs and add up to more than the whole. The whole, in this case, being only 26 lean minutes, which makes me suspect that Torture Rack know how much they can take this style. No attempt is made to take it further, but there is also not a need to.
