Hailing from London, Tornmód delivers their third demo of second wave worship with “Vengeance”. At four tracks and just under 21 minutes, Tornmód ups the ante on their last two demos with much tighter production, while still keeping tight to their crushing, lo-fi/raw sound. While somewhat incohesive and disjointed, “Vengeance” is a fantastic effort that signals new territory for Tornmód.
The demo opens with “Vengaence” and “Crushing Eternity”, two excellent and blistering riff-centric tracks of straight forward raw; if you are looking for synthy interludes or lots of build up and atmosphere you won’t find it here: this is no frills, no bullshit Black Metal. After a killer start Tornmód unloads with nearly four minutes of crushing, suffocating, extreme noise that is pretty different from anything we have heard from them.
While the tail of it does make for a great intro to the excellent final track “Nothingness”, and makes for a decent extreme noise track in its own right, this reviewer found it much too long, lacking in focus/concept, and otherwise misplaced with the rest of the demo.
The last track “Nothingness” is the best and by far longest of the set; much slower, doomier, drony DSBM, it has the most developed song structure and nuanced song writing of the demo and signals new ground for Tornmód. “Nothingness” again seems out of place/pace with the rest of the demo, but unlike “Hostility & Wrath” somehow works, with the common core being the amazing vocals tying it all together.
While not getting as much of the kvlt hype as some of their UK compatriots, Tornmód is worth keeping an eye on. (Empyreal Cascadian)
