Lista de los grupos Death Metal The Obscene (UK) The Torment of SInners

The Obscene are hardly new to the genre of death metal at all, having been around since 2003 as Salute to the Sun until the change of band name in 2010. The Torment of SInners is the first release by the band under this new name.

The album opens with The Storm to Come, with howling winds in the background and a dark atmosphere before the first riffs that introduces listeners to the band's music begins, a guitar tone that somehow reminds me of death/thrash metal bands. The band then begins their onslaught proper with Embrace Oblivion, with Tom's throaty vocals and the frantic drumming of Chris Newby commanding presence and attention from the listener along with the almost jarring riffs of guitarist Jonny. Songs like Grim Discovery also make use of spoken samples, displaying the band's love for violence and destruction ("I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm just gonna bash your brains!"). Bassist/backing vocalist Garry also provides the higher-end of vocals, almost like a scream, complementing Tom's growls, and this effect is most obviously seen on Grim Discovery.

The band also incorporates doom elements in their music, with Beyond the Hold of God starting with a doom-paced riff, almost bringing to mind a slightly less heavy version of a typical Coffins song, but they break off into their usual speed again after awhile. On this track as well, guitarist Jonny's skills are displayed with the melodic guitar solo (which, unfortunately was mixed too low to really shine). The riff that threatens to go out of sync with the rest of the band messes with the listener's head, yet somehow the band manages to stay coherent throughout. The usage of 2 different guitar tones on the song (and on the rest of the album) also adds a unique touch, to say the least. The first half of the EP ends with The Final Silence, with an atmospheric outro that gives listeners the premonition that this is not the end, but only the beginning of what's to come in the future.

The second part of the EP (tracks 7 to 11) feature bonus materials from the Destroying the Heavens EP which was released by the band when they were still Salute to the Sun. Opening track P.S.A.S. immediately shows the difference between the songs before and now. While the same constant tempo is kept, the production quality is slightly rawer than before, and the vocals are more savage, despite keeping the same vocal formula as on The Torment of SInners. The band however displays a larger variety in their songwriting on the bonus material, with more slower sections, and even an acoustic section on the track (and can almost pass off as a DSBM band, with the emotional/depressing notes on the guitar). This will not be the only appearance of acoustic sections as Destroying the Heavens also begins with acoustic guitars before the real chaos ensues. It also seems that the tracks on Destroying the Heavens are more melodic, with guitarist Jonny's riffs sounding like it could easily fit on a melodic death metal record, particularly on the title track, Destroying the Heavens.

While most of the songs stick to the usual 3/4 minute formula, certain tracks last under 2 minutes, and are good for people who have really short attention span, or perhaps for fans of grindcore looking to convert into death metal proper, and also hence the short run time of just 5 minutes more than 30 minutes despite having 11 tracks on it.