Lancaster, PA is not a town known for it's metal and it's certainly not known for death metal. It's always nice to hear quality hometown death metal, but that matters not to almost every reader. All you care about is the music.
First, the name. It's quite interesting. The full name is Torture Ascendancy 1307, but they generally go by just Torture Ascendancy. The band seems to be history buffs as the "1307 is the year when many members of the Knights Templar were arrested, tortured and burned at the stake by order of King Philip IV of France." To quote singer Chris, "the torture ascendancy is basically you must be tortured to ascend IE Jesus." Sounds pretty metal to me!
This demo is straight up pure death metal with a bit of a black metal touch. It has a real old school feel mixed well with a modern sound. I can definitely hear Cannibal Corpse in the groove parts, but mostly I'm hearing a lot of Deicide, Morbid Angel, and Vital Remains. Real evil blasting going on here.
The four tracks are a real nice introduction to the band. Death metal purists would love this. The musicianship is great. They're tight and not overly technical. It's not overproduced, but it doesn't sound like shit at all. The only thing I didn't care for as much as the rest of everything else were the high screams. I found them to be a little grating at times, but that's really a minor gripe and a personal preference. I would like to hear them groove a little more as constant speed can lose my interest and a groove locks a listener in. Even death metal can have hooks and it's not a bad thing. All in all, this is a nice outing and I'm eager to hear more from the band.
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