### Severe Torture: Fall of the despised

#### 27/12/11 || BamaHammer

I love Wikipedia. You can find so much cool information about musicians, especially interesting facts for music nerds like me. For instance, Alex Webster used an Ibanez Soundgear bass on “The bleeding.” When I looked at Alex Webster’s page a few weeks ago, it featured a photo of him playing on stage while wearing a Severe Torture t-shirt.

I didn’t really know much about Severe Torture other than they had a pretty ace logo. After some quick research, I found out that they were a relatively young band, having been around for a little over a decade. I also noticed they were from the Netherlands, which was always a plus for a death metal band in my book. They were also heavily inspired by Cannibal Corpse in their early days, apparently, so obviously, I was eager to hear them.

Their 2005 release, “Fall of the despised,” was the cheapest and most easily obtainable album from the band and seemed like a good place to start. It had received some praise online, and it’s cover, while not fantastic, wasn’t nearly as silly or ridiculous as some of the band’s previous covers. From the moment I got the album in the mail and stuck it in the CD player and heard the opener “Endless strain of cadavers” (Vomitory semi-plagiarism, anyone?), I was floored.

The production job on the album is just amazing. Hans Pieters, who worked with Gorefest, should be declared the czar of death metal production for this one. The sound is thick and tremendously powerful, and every instrument has ample volume to shine. I love a good loud bass, and this album has one of the best clean bass sounds I’ve ever heard. Patrick Boleij’s parts are very intricate and technical like a lot of death metal bands out there, but they have enough volume so that you plainly hear every nuance of every note. I can’t say it enough. This album’s sound is utterly stunning.

As for the music, these guys know how to make quality death metal. Everything they do sounds extremely tight. They truly play well as a unit on this album and demonstrate their skill and precision wonderfully. The guitar sound and riffing reminds me of old Decapitated. The album is full of fast, chugging, aggressive riffs that are simply fun to hear over and over again.

Dennis Schreurs’ vocals come in two flavors: traditional guttural death grunt and Van Drunen. That’s actually a pretty cool feature that this album brings to the table just because Schreurs has the ability to change up the sound so noticeably from time to time. His standard guttural growl is actually really good, but when he fires up his piercing, Van Drunen-esque shriek on those rare occasions, it just magnifies the intensity of the music.

Severe Torture know brutality as well as any band out there, and I assure you they can pen a pretty catchy death metal track that combines fine-tuned technicality and infectious groove. Plus they’re Dutch, so you know it’s awesome. There’s really not a weak moment on this album. It’s just 40 minutes of pure brutal death metal from a group of dudes who are really good at it.

- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Earache
- Website: www.severetorture.com
- Band
- Dennis Schreurs: vocals
- Marvin Vriesde: guitars
- Thijs Van Laarhoven: guitars
- Patrick Boleij: bass
- Seth Van De Loo: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Endless strain of cadavers
- 02. Sawn off
- 03. Unconditional annihilation
- 04. Consuming the dying
- 05. Impulsive mutilation
- 06. Dead from the waist up
- 07. Decree of darkness
- 08. Enshrined in madness
- 09. End of Christ
- 10. Fall of the despised