There’s too much torture in this world… Not only meant generally but also in matter of using the term TORTURE as bandname: how originally! Now, where I disposed a 15 years old demo of a homonymous band from Southern Germany I got two new ones, one from the States and another one from Germany…
In this review I’m dealing with the release of the American issue of this name, which is actually much older than the one I recently trashed. Storm Alert was recorded in 1989 but only released in UK as it seems.
To tell the truth, this belated “official” release seems to be only motivated by financial interests, in fact by all participants. Even founder Tom Hicks himself states on the info sheet that he and his band mates considered Thrash Metal as an obsolescent model at that time, getting lost out by the upcoming Death Metal. So TORTURE quit the service and its members went to university. Well, education isn’t any bad, is it? After the Thrash revival of the last years the guys seemingly remembered their sins. But instead of creating something new they took Storm Alert, to get it polished up by Neil Kernon and re-unleashed that piece again. No idea, what for, there’s nothing great in doing so. Plus, they killed the very last mythos that might have been around this underground band.
There is of course nothing new on this record. One gets old school Thrash Metal that reminds me of Mortal Sin (AUS) and besides appears as a blend of early Hallows Eve, Nasty Savage and Infernal Majesty, still (surprisingly till today) without their originality. Merely the use of untypical acoustic guitars in the tracks attracts some attention. Besides, TORTURE offer absolutely nothing that nowadays kicks me out of my socks, even if that might have been different 15, 20 years ago.
Then I rather listen to bands such as Destruction that also live on their classics but actually write new and even great songs after their resurrection.
If they would have put bonus material on Storm Alert, then I’d say: nice thingy. But this way it is just unnecessary recycling, at best one dwelling in nostalgia will take pleasure in. 5 points.