Torture Hammer Self-Titled Review
Torture Hammer
S/T
Creator-Destructor Records
2025
Sunny, affluent, and gentrified NorCal city Santa Cruz is probably not the go-to place when one thinks, “I bet they have some disgustingly heavy death metal bands there.” However, given that said city was the backdrop for the fictional Santa Carla in The Lost Boys and does have its fair share of weirdos and fringe folks in real life, maybe it's a perfect place for some of that stuff. Whatever the case, Santa Cruz natives Torture Hammer are about to make their hometown synonymous with some truly terrifying music if they have their say with the latest self-titled EP here via Creator-Destructor Records.
Torture Hammer has an interesting history leading up to this release. Their press states such in the following: “After writing and releasing 2024’s Dormant Horror debut EP as a two-piece, TORTURE HAMMER vocalist Peter Pawlak and guitarist Sean Collins added drummer Max Mahmood (Iron Front, Manos De Fierro) and bassist Amir Sahabi (Caveman).” So now the beast here is fully fleshed out, which brings me to this eponymous skull-cracking ripper. Torture Hammer was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Charles Toshio at Panda Studios in Fremont, California (Spy, Sunami, and Scowl) and completed with cover art by Martyrdoom Illustrations (200 Stab Wounds, Kruelty, Morbid Visionz). The overall mix and production are what's to be expected of this variety of mostly mid-paced, mosh-part-heavy, near-“slam” type of death metal. It's low, bottom-heavy, chuggy, and has breakdowns and double-bass drumming capable of leveling entire cities. I can do without the pinch-harmonic sections, bass drops, and 808 hits here and there, but that's just me being nitpicky and admitting it isn't my preference. An important distinction to make here is that it in no way takes away from the songs; it's merely a production color I don't care to paint with. I ain't producing their records nor writing their songs, so let's move on!
We get six tunes, and man, for as short as they are, there is plenty of meat on the bones. There are tremolo-picked riffs, slam riffs, and deep guttural vocals sure to satiate any death metal fan’s appetite. Torture Hammer are content to plod along at an Obituary-type mid-pace and repeatedly kick your teeth in with lyrics about hellish and gory scenes perfect for their death-by-way-of-beatdown approach. Where I feel Torture Hammer excels is that the slam and breakdown parts aren't used as the basis of entire songs—just to bookend them or start them or throw one in around the middle to keep us guessing. If you're a technical death metal freak or speed-crazy, this one isn't for you. These songs are meant to make you bang your head and latch into their monolithic grooves. Personal standouts for me are opener “Bodily Harm,” “Catastrophic Collapse,” and “Coward’s Surrender,” which actually does contain some faster sections coupled with the 800-lb-gorilla stomp they do so well.
Torture Hammer are setting the West Coast ablaze and did extensive touring in that area this past October. Here's hoping I can catch them out East here sometime in the new year. Scrape your knuckles across the pavement, revel in their brand of caveman riffs, and try not to destroy your house when those breakdowns hit. Lethal stuff for sure.
RIYL : Cannibal Corpse, Skinless, Internal Bleeding, Kruelty, Pyrexia, Barbarous