In 2014 it's hard to find good old school Black Metal with its rusty recordings and violent screams but EXCRUCIATE 666 take you straight back in time. ''Rites Of Torturers'' is their 9^th release since the band started in 1994 and they have no intention of stopping their epic Black Metal any time soon. If you love bands like MAYHEM, DARKTHRONE and DARK FUNERAL then EXCRUCIATE 666 are just heavy enough for you.

''Rites Of The Torturer'' begins with ''The Awakening Of The Tyrant'', a generic old school black metal track with a unique edge. Morgraven's vocals are violently high in places and Oswald's drumming is just fast enough to keep up with Blasphemort on guitar. The song has various speeds to constantly keep your attention and classic riffs to keep it easy to get stuck in your head. ''Sing Of Disaster'' has Thrash guitars, Death drums and blackened vocals proving that EXCRUCIATE 666 know how to combine so many genre's from each member to create such an individual sound, the vocals could have been a lot better for this if they were slightly clearer but the lyrics are still as angry as the previous. The drum fills in title track ''Rites Of Tortures'' is the highlight of the song and stands out a lot more than the guitars and screechy vocals. This is one of the worst parts of the albums but is still a good effort from the band, but compared to the previous it has nothing good apart from Oswald on the drums.

The French Metalhead's bring back their iconic Black Metal sound with ''Sons Of Warfare'' which is heavily fuelled by old school Doom and Black Metal. The opening part of the track is slow but quickly builds up to a fast paced chorus, vocals aren't as strong as they could be here sounding strained at times but this is a song for old school fans. If you want to hear what BURZUM would sound like with better recording quality then ''Warblood'' is exactly what it would sound like. The drums, guitars and vocals fit perfectly together, almost creating a perfect black metal track. Blasphemort's un-complex riffs make this easy to head bang to despite being one of the heavier tracks from the album. Morgraven's vocals are at its highest point though still sounding strained in parts, he can still give off a ghostly feel to the track whilst Oswald blast beats his way through the song.

''A Call To Destruction'' is opened up with a distorted guitar and quiet paradiddles before it breaks into super-fast blackened Thrash Metal. The penultimate track is the most melodic despite the heavy influence of thrash metal but it is not as strong as previous tracks before. ''Obscene Perversion In Genocide'' is the final track of the album and it is obviously one of the heaviest. Though Morgraven's vocals at times are painful to listen to throughout the song, the fast guitar and bass do compliment it.

Overall EXCRUCIATE 666 have made ''Rites Of The Torturer'' into a great album and should be proud of themselves. The band have kept to their old school Black Metal ways and they should never change their sound even if they do have some weaker tracks on the album.