With nearly three whole years in between Misanthropic Carnage and Fall Of The Despised it is safe to say that Severe Torture will never get a prize for being the fastest recording band around. What they might lack in quantity however, they sure make up for in quality. So far each new release made sure the band made a slight progression, and this is no different on Fall Of The Despised. In fact we can even go as far as say that it is their most mature album to date!!!!
In the three years of relative silence, Severe Torture went through several changes, both musically as well as lineup wise. The biggest and most notable ones obviously being the addition of an extra guitar player in the form of Marvin Vriesde (Blo.Torch, Dew Scented), and the switching of record labels, by going from Hammerheart Records to Earache. I am not sure how much these two events actually influenced the band musically but it almost seems as if Severe Torture opted for a new and fresh start with Fall Of The Despised. Gone is the over-the-top artwork which marked their other releases (and got them banned in several countries), and gone is also the frantic, high-speed style of playing the band so skillfully showed in the past. Or well, nearly gone that is...
Not to say that these changes are bad however. You can only record a certain number of ultra-fast and brutal releases before it gets boring after all and Severe Torture might have very well made the most important decision in their career by opting for this slightly different musical path. Slightly? Yes, indeed, slightly. Because make no mistake. The band lyrically still is as brutal and misanthropic as ever and still plays Death Metal - albeit a somewhat different kind than they used to. Instead of the continuous blast attacks from the past, we get a lot more experimentation with different speeds and styles on Fall Of The Despised. Songs like the slow, grooving Enshrined In Madness or Consuming The Dying, which alternates between blast parts and mid-tempo bits, show an entirely different side of the band than what we are used to, and it is something that fits them rather well. Fans of frantic speed attacks however are not left in the cold either, as for example Dead From The Waste Up proves. More attention is also spent on the guitar work and vocals - with a lot of well-played, melodic leads and with Dennis Schreurs adding a new level of variation to his vocal style, by occasionally opting for a more screaming approach as opposed to simply grunting all the way.
Fall Of The Despised is clearly a new chapter in Severe Torture's existence and one which will establish them as one of the leading Death Metal bands hailing from The Netherlands. Good album and as said before easily their most varied and mature one to date. If the band manages to maintain this level of quality in their releases, we are sure to hear a lot more from them in the years to come!