EXCRUCIATION:
"(t)horns" 
www.excruciation.net
Recorded at Tonwerk 132, Wetzikon (CH), engineered by Dr. Daniel
Theis, mixed and mastered by V.O. Pulver at Little Creek Studios,
Gelterkindern(CH).
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I
was hate, i am doom.
If you like Death/Doom Metal you definitively should check Excruciation out.
I could not care less that this album has been released in October
2009, i review an album when i'm in the mood for, and after all this is
still the latest cd of this exquisite combo which i appreciate since
2007 when i heard (and wrote about) the previous album "Angels to Some, Demons to Others".
Actually it's never too late to present a little gem. This Swiss band gratifies the listener with all the best characteristics of Doom Metal, namely groovy melodies, heavy sound, slow till mid tempos with impending feelings,
aesthetic harmonies played by guitars that sometimes are even able to create almost pink
floyd-ian atmospheres but without synth ,on the contrary with rather low tuned timbres. A sense of suffering is
brought through a mood very near to traditional Doom but in practice is transformed in something which results to be very dark and fearful in its beauty.
The songs (mainly written by the duo Eugenio Meccariello - lyrics- and
Jose Venegas -music-), although quite long, never cease to be interesting.
The guitar works in all tracks is of a crystalline ability and offers all registers of metal: from thick riffs to single slow fine strokes of chords like in the agonizing intro of
Dignitas. Drums and bass-guitar play an essential role in the whole ambushing rhythmic pillar.
Solid, intense, gloomy and delighting are opener Raptus and the third track
A dying Sun. You cannot but take pleasure in listening to these two songs so many times, multiplying your own dispersion both in sorrow and in the immediately agreeable taste of the composition. The rest is done by the vocals performed in a clear growl yet through a timbre of grief, anger or suffering. Well,
you notice that there are 3 guitars and one bass which together can perform an immense carpet of possibilities.
67 (an interlude) is a short anguishing prelude to December 12 which is one of the slowest
and psychized tracks of the album and the longest one (7:14) with a winning recurrent refrain and old fashioned guitars.
Preceded by the dark guitar- based track Dust; a prelude, which is full of (slow rocking) echoes of devastation,
Vultures takes shape for 6 minutes of sorrow burnt in desperation.
Faith of the discarded is all what classical doom/death metal can supply as
frightening and depressing old school style.
And then comes the fantastic I hail you, 4 minutes of masterly reiterated
metal. The album ends in a bit dissonant way with And the dead start to breathe
again.
Even better (if possible) than the previous already super album "Angels to Some, Demons to Others",
"(t)horns" is a great manifestation of what the Swiss "underground" can do. It is hidden gold for those who like authentic good musical experience in metal with absorbing lyrics. For fans of Candlemass, Saint Vitus and, above all, old Paradise
Lost, this album should be even a must. Horns up to (t)horns, with the intelligent title,
with that simple but effective cover art and comfortable digipack with lyrics.
The only thing i miss here is that surprising touch that the previous
album provided to me at the moment that the band proposed The Prayer to our Father pronounced in
original Aramaic.
"...i was pain. i was hate. i am doom. Death for every life"
9,7/10
written
by dalia
di giacomo 12.11.2010
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