You could spend all day, every day listening to brutal and gore-obsessed death metal and still only scratch the surface of what is a fecund and remorseless subscene. Given the limited qualities required to fit the bill, the best examples of this most unpleasant of metallic strains usually rise to the top as a consequence of enhanced levels of energy and intensity.
Basement Torture Killings have an abundance of both. And, on their second album, they wield them like cleavers aimed straight for your forehead. The subject matter is familiar enough, ranging from violent kidnap on Car Trunk Caroline to ritualistic slaughter on Kill For Satan, but there is enough character and explosive verve to mark this out as a fatal cut above the rabid, chasing pack.
Pitched between prime Cannibal Corpse and Impaled at their most frenzied, songs like Progressive Depravity and the superbly monikered Minus Fingers Teeth And Toes are never going to appeal to those weaned on more polished and polite fare, but those of us who savour a bit of horror and degradation will lap this up like fresh offal.
