Tort - Dimonis de la Sauva Negra

Tort is a death/doom/sludge band from Spain, who formed in 2009.  Their latest album, “Dimonis de la Sauva Negra,” is their fourth full-length album; they have also released an EP.

This is my first experience with the band but with supreme ultimate confidence I can say “Dimonis de la Sauva Negra,” is the balls.   Is that good?  Very good.  Google it if you don’t believe me.  Actually, don’t google balls.  

Tort has crafted one of the more brutal albums this year.  The vocals are absolutely unnatural and offensive in the best way possible.  Deep, filled with gravel, blood, spit and whatever else you want to describe here, these death growls will scare your child and/or pet.  The atmosphere matches the vocals:  terrifying, bleak, and without a moment of safety to be found.  

Instrumentally, the music grinds doom, sludge, and death metal into puree chat pulp of all things sickening.  The band reforms it and release it as an entity of its own, that just happens to exist alongside the vocals and atmosphere.

There is a real honesty to this album, too.  It isn’t slow and brutal for the sake of it.  It’s a purposely built nastahead overdrive (bonus points if you get this reference).  The riffs go on for days, hit the lowest of lows, bury into the underground and from there they thrive. Listening to this album feels like being pushed through a hole way too small (compliment) after swimming through concrete.  

There are more than enough moments of groove and faster speeds throughout to satisfy those of you who aren’t doomheads (you’re lame though) and this album is as extreme as the most brutal death metal albums I’ve heard this year so far.   With that being said, there are at times an odd sense of melody.  It’s sort of off kilter, like seeing some bleak thing out of the corner of your eye.  It was there—you know it was.  But then it's gone and only a fleeting memory remains.  That’s how a band like this should do melody and they nail it. 

Check out the first song, “Necrophagus Paranoid,” with its macabre beginning that quickly gives way to the crushing weight of vocals that crush the riffs that crush your mind that crush your ears.  It’s layers of CRUSH.  The drums are very impressive, knowing exactly when the song needs a quick bout of energy or when to settle into the gloomy doom and live in the deepest of pockets. 

The title track is full of swagger and by swagger, I mean filthy, swampy grooves that get deeper into the muck as they go.  There is a subtle hint of stoner doom throughout and it’s little details like that make the song really stand out.  Some of the vocals have a more blackened feel to it–it works great in conjunction with the rolling drums that push the riffs just a little more.  Some of that odd melody I spoke of early appears in the form of what can only be describe as a solo of noise but, again, the band nails it.

“Ningú fugirà del coneixedor,” the final song is my favorite.  It takes all the things I love about extreme doom and injects them steroids/rabies/hell.  Psychedelic, melodic textures throw a twist in these hallowed corridors early on—very cool effect and, again, it's the little details that make the album stand out so well.  The song spends the first four minutes or so just grinding it out low and slow—just how I like it.  Then the tempo kicks up a few notches, and the band plays it into the abyss and back again.

All in all, Tort’s “Dimonis de la Sauva Negra,” is a brutal album that surprises in some ways while providing all the expectations of a musical version of being beaten to death by a bat that’s made up of other bats.  Highly recommended. 

Rating: Excellent