One of the problems with popular music, metal included, is the extent to which it often becomes personality driven, often to the exclusion of approaching art on its own terms. Case in point: Tormentor's Anno Domini, which is chiefly remembered (if it is remembered at all) as the album that launched the career of Mayhem vocalist Attila Csihar. This is a shame, as Anno Domini is a brilliant record, rich in imagination and innovation, and should probably be considered the birth of black metal's second wave.
While other bands that emerged from the speed/thrash scene of the late 80's were busy regurgitating their influences, Tormentor took a different tack, applying speed metal technique to a core aesthetic concept rooted in classical and folk inspired melodies. In doing so, the band anticipated much of what was to come from the Scandinavian black metal explosion of '89-'95. Album highlight "Elisabeth Bathory" is startlingly similar in its approach to Bathory's landmark Hammerheart, driven by echoing, militant drum beats and ponderous, organically melodic, fuzz-toned riffs that explore the dark spaces of the collective unconscious. Elsewhere, we hear the beginnings of the style that would be perfected by DarkThrone, most notably on "Damned Grave." As for Attila, Anno Domini remains to this day his most visceral and emotively powerful vocal performance.
What emerges upon repeated listens is something that seems almost paradoxical, a band in the full flush of youthful creative vitality, but possessed of the self-confidence and artistic discipline to deliver a masterpiece of all that is essential to their ideal, with no wasted motion.
98/100
While other bands that emerged from the speed/thrash scene of the late 80's were busy regurgitating their influences, Tormentor took a different tack, applying speed metal technique to a core aesthetic concept rooted in classical and folk inspired melodies. In doing so, the band anticipated much of what was to come from the Scandinavian black metal explosion of '89-'95. Album highlight "Elisabeth Bathory" is startlingly similar in its approach to Bathory's landmark Hammerheart, driven by echoing, militant drum beats and ponderous, organically melodic, fuzz-toned riffs that explore the dark spaces of the collective unconscious. Elsewhere, we hear the beginnings of the style that would be perfected by DarkThrone, most notably on "Damned Grave." As for Attila, Anno Domini remains to this day his most visceral and emotively powerful vocal performance.
What emerges upon repeated listens is something that seems almost paradoxical, a band in the full flush of youthful creative vitality, but possessed of the self-confidence and artistic discipline to deliver a masterpiece of all that is essential to their ideal, with no wasted motion.
98/100
