Band: Tortured Conscience
Title: Every Knee Shall Bow
Label: Bombworks Records
Release Date: 10.10.06
Review By: Josh IndieVision
Tracklisting:
01. Blinded
02. Apostate Return
03. Modern Day Pharisees
04. The Trial
05. The New Trend
06. The Word Became Flesh
07. Internal Torment
08. Every Knee Shall Bow
09. No Ambiguity
10. Crucify (Bloodgood Cover) (BONUS TRACK)
Members/Duties:
Jeff Lenormand: Axe
John Gotelli: Drums
Berto Salas: vocals
Tortured Conscience is a death metal/grind band from San Francisco. Jeff Lenormand played in the secular grindcore band Vulgar Pigeons with John. However, he had been working on a side project and asked John to drum for it. Berto came along, being familiar with the band, and volunteered his vocals. That is the shortened version of the story as I know it. The band got in touch with Bombworks Records, who opted to release the full length.
Like I said above the band plays grind-influenced death metal. The music is fast and heavy, and is quite technical throughout. The blastbeats are seemingly never-ending I certainly would be tired just watching these guys play a set! As is the case with grind, the pace rarely lets up. There is constant shredding, but some songs tend to sound similar. The one thing I did notice was how talented this band is, but more importantly how much more they could offer across the board. There are points in a few of the songs, where a Living Sacrifice rhythm comes through and it leads me to only hope for more in that direction. They could easily accomplish a more accessible metal sound with a few alterations musically. However, during some points in the album, I feel lost and lose track of what is going on musically, which in turns brings lost interest. Unfortunately that happened more than once while listening to this disc. There are times when I think this album could be closer to the top of my metal discs but then at other times I really don’t care for it. It’s just one of those discs.
Overall Rating: “Every Knee Shall Bow” is not a gateway album into this style but a nice addition to any brutal metal fan’s collection. The potential here is plenty and with a bit more intentional focus, and with some changes here and there, the album would be much more enjoyable for me. Another absolutely brutal release from Bombworks. This one is bound to keep fans of death metal happy and they have gained a fan in me!
Standout Tracks: “Blinded, “The Trial”, “No Ambiguity”
Myspace
Bombworks Records
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