TORTURE KILLER SWARM!
I want to thank Oni64 for recommending this album to me!
Torture Killer is a band from Finland. Not to be mistaken for the Louisiana band Ritual Killer. Torture Killer seems to be named after the Six Feet Under song of the name name. They released their second album, “Swarm!” on February 20th, 2006.
I will say, from the beginning, I was shocked. I didn’t expect this album to be this good. Yes, you hear Chris Barnes as he went towards his more zombified sound that was popularized with Six Feet Under, but there are parts where he does some gutturals like that you’d hear from his Cannibal Corpse days. In many ways, I feel like this album is what Six Feet Under was supposed to sound like. A band that is musically, so great and talented, that you can forgive any silliness that may arise from Chris Barnes’ antics. I guess that I shouldn’t have been surprised though, as the band itself is from Finland, as stated before. Some really great Death Metal bands have come from the area, Demigod and Rippikoulu were two that immediately came to mind. I will say though, that those two bands don’t sound like Torture Killer.
On the metal archives, it states that Chris Barnes wrote the lyrics for songs 2-4, 6, and 8; while Jari Laine did the songwriting for virtually all of the songs except #8. This track is the titled, “I Killed You”, and it appears to have been solely written by Chris, at least, lyric wise from what I understand.
This seems to be the band’s only release on Metal Blade, I suppose that this is likely because of Chris Barnes’ appearance on the album.
On the Metal Blade website it says:
Chris Barnes contacted Torture Killer last October (2004) with a very supportive and friendly note. The name Torture Killer caught his attention and he was intrigued enough to check the band out. This is when Barnes found out about the difficult situation they were at with the line up and offered to step in as the new Torture Killer vocalist and that he would handle the vocals on Swarm! – The renamed 2nd album. Here’s what he has to say about it:
“I’m very happy to announce that I have joined the band Torture Killer full time. These guys are some of the best musicians I have ever been involved with, and I am 100% intent on using all my resources and energy to help propel this band to the top of the death metal food chain. I am extremely pleased with the songs we’ve put together for the CD ‘Swarm!’, and I can’t wait to get out on tour with the band and kill every one of you sick fuckers!!! See you soon.” – Barnes
With a back catalogue including death metal classics such as Butchered at Birth, Tomb of the Mutilated, Haunted and Maximum Violence it is obvious that the eyes of death metal fans will be on Torture Killer – in good and bad.
The basic tracks for Swarm! were recorded back in January 2005, Chris did his vocals at The Hit Factory, Florida in May/June with Chris Carroll and the album was mixed and mastered by Chris and Erik Rutan in October. Cover artwork was done by infamous artist Wes Benscoter (who has done covers for such bands as Mortician, Cattle Decapitation, and Vehemence) who gave the album the visual impact it needed. “
[ https://www.metalblade.com/us/artists/torture-killer/ ]
There doesn’t seem to be any info about what eventually caused Torture Killer to leave Metal Blade, and even though the label’s website still has a page on Torture Killer, when you click on the link to buy the album, it leads to a 404 on the metal blade website. Even though the band has a bandcamp, this album is not on it. So…it seems that this album is not available for purchase, anywhere officially. Nor can you legally download it anywhere, which is a real shame, because this is an album I would actually buy! HEY METAL BLADE, LET US BUY THIS!! !
Swarm! - The album starts off with the eponymous track, an amazing show of talent from the band. Barnes just simply states “Swarm”, which is probably the easiest lyric in his entire career. The guitars are so good in this, the tingling thing they do reminds me of a literal hornet. A yellow jacket maybe? This was a great way to introduce an album.
Forever Dead - The first song that consists of Barnes’ full vocals. He does that Six Feet Under zombie thing, where I can see how some people might be turned off by it; but, I can forgive this, because the band is so damn good. There is the interesting lyric, “No escape from this fate”, which I’m sure is a nod towards the Cannibal Corpse song “Fucked With A Knife” from the album “The Bleeding”. In that song, Chris wrote “No escape from your fate, destined to be mine”. I think it makes sense that he’d do this, considering that “The Bleeding” had came out only a little over a decade before this. There’s a part in the song, where Chris does those deep gutturals also similar to his Cannibal Corpse days, which proves to me that he had the capability to do it still. For the most part though, you hear Barnes’ hollow zombie voice though.
A Funeral For The Masses - The song starts out with a really awesome and heavy guitar riff, like they were on a mission. I wasn’t a fan of Chris’ vocals on this too much, as his hollowed out voice didn’t seem heavy enough for the band’s instrumentation. I feel like Chris should have been more guttural, opposed to what I suppose you’d call the “decayed” voice he had. At times, it’d almost seem like his voice would “crack” or something. Other times, he’d nearly hit the nail on the head with the lyrics. Overall, I like the song a lot though.
Multiple Counts of Murder - The song immediately starts off, fast and the drums do what I like to call “Traveling”. It feels like they’re a moving set of wheels, on the go. The drums and guitars flow effortlessly, you can tell that the band was really unified together. The solo is really good, and almost prog-like. It’s a bit reminiscent of it’s time period, 2006, but not outdated. It reminds me of some of the better music of that time. I’ll be honest though, as much as I like the band on this track, I don’t really care for Barnes’ vocals on this so much. I would have preferred for the harder, deeper, more guttural sounds from him, once again. I do like how he ends the song though, like a horror movie killer getting ready to kill again, in the sequel of a movie.
Obsessed With Homicide - I liked how this song starts out, and I felt like Chris’ vocals did well on this one, fitting in with the band rather naturally. I do wish that when Chris chanted “kill” multiple times, that he did it more in time. He seemed a little off from the band when he did this. I know that he recorded his vocals separately from the band, who recorded in Finland, but I still don’t understand why the post production didn’t time this together correctly. Even still, I actually like this song!
Sadistic - Definitely one of the more “sick” songs Chris has written lyrically, and akin to what you’d see on his older albums such as “Tomb of The Mutilated”. The lyrics to this song, and majority of the album really, are very much like a horror movie. I feel like that’s Chris’ writing style in general, where he emulates the Horror movies that he watches. This song’s lyrics remind me of something from the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, the 2003 remake. I like the band’s playing on this song more than I enjoyed Chris’s vocals, though, he closes out the song well, in my opinion.
Cannibal Gluttony - Another song that starts out immediately, and I love it. The guitars are like a swarm, if you will. A cloud of hornets that would engulf someone and sting them to death. Now that I think about it, I don’t know why none of the lyrics to any of the songs ever included this. It would have been pretty cool and Super Metal to have Death Metal song about killer bees or something.
What I really enjoyed about this song, was how the band “wrapped around” from beginning to end with their riffs. It’s like they were really drilling the point in. Driller killer?
I Killed You - Chris’ vocals are okay here, he sounds a little too zombified for me in the beginning. I think that this song would have benefited from Chris’ deep gutturals, though he sort of achieves that a little bit here. The band has more time to do their thing in this song, and I appreciate the moments where we can just hear them play. Sometimes, it sounds like Chris Barnes has a sock shoved down his throat, and I’m curious how he even achieved that type of sound. The band sounds bad ass though.
Heading Towards The Butchery - Another great song that starts off bad ass. The band is on point, and just really jams. Chris’ vocals sound more hollowed out by this point on the album, a little too tired. He has parts where he’d be in time with the band though, so it’s interesting how sometimes he’d be off, and others he’d be right on point. I can ignore his vocals though, for the rest of the band’s impressive playing.
A Violent Scene of Death - The final song on the album, and a really bad ass way to end it too. It really grooves, and to me, I feel like Chris must have really enjoyed the music too, as he was a lot more in time in this track than some of the others. He sometimes does those gutturals like you’d hear on the “The Bleeding”, which I love. He’ll still have that hollowed out sound, but once again, I can forgive it, because of how good the band is. And I know that I keep saying that, but this band is really good! I feel like everyone must have had fun while playing this song, because it’s so high energy! The way it ends, it makes me want more!
Overall, I really enjoyed this album. I wish that we could buy it online somewhere! There are parts to Chris’ vocals that I don’t really like, but, I feel like the rest of the band’s talent is so good, that you can easily ignore him. Much like how people can’t stand Dave Mustaine’s vocals in Megadeth, I feel like the overwhelming majority of this band makes this album worth listening to. Listening to more of Torture Killer’s discography on Spotify, they seem to be a talented set of people.
Video: https://youtu.be/aCDa4lpij70
