ALBUM REVIEW Tormentor – The Agony Scene

It’s been ten long years since Oklahoma metalcore crew THE AGONY SCENE disbanded. Since then, their has been talk of a reunion and new material. Finally, after a couple of years of rumours, that material has arrived in the shape of their fourth full length effort Tormentor, the new ten track album out on Outerloop Records, and its an impressive return as well.

Bar the minute long atmospheric introduction of Awakening, the entire album is a pure unbridled energetic assault of furious riffs the seems to get faster and angrier each time a new one starts. One of the best examples of this is Hand Of The Divine, which save for a brief ten to 15 second breakdown just builds and builds the aggression. This is a pattern which flows through this release but the building of the tension ensure that this is more than just several different versions of the same song.

Even though the sound the album is largely reminiscent of the period in which they came from, there are a couple of surprises thrown in for good measure too.  The base of the album may be heavily evocative of the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal scene of the mid 2000’s and there is also a healthy amount of melodic death metal thrown in for good measure, but what is surprising is the fact the album throws a little black metal in there too. The Ascent And Decline sounds like the start of IMMORTAL’s classic Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark) and the the introduction to album closer, Mechanical Breath, also has that same claustrophobic intensity. Every new influence and section sounds more viscous than the last.

The material on offer with Tormentor may not be groundbreaking, as it does follow a few well trodden paths, but it is an interesting mixture, and refreshing compared to a lot of what is currently doing the rounds in heavy music today. An interesting release for sure. It’s is good to have THE AGONY SCENE back, and the core of the band getting back together has seen them carry on from where they left off. It will be very interesting to see what the future holds for the band, especially on the back of this solid offering. 

Rating: 7/10

Tormentor is out now via Outerloop Records/Cooking Vinyl.

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