SHORT BUT SWEET: CONDUIT / TORTURE REALM / VOMIT FORTH

(Andy Synn tries to tempt you with another terrific triptych of short form releases)

The last one of these “Short But Sweet” collections I did was all about Hardcore… albeit, firmly of the more Metallic persuasion… and is well worth checking out if you haven’t already done so (read all about Ecotage, Melting, and Rats Will Feast here).

I promised, however, that next time I’d focus more on the Death Metal side of things, which brings us to today’s trio of terror from Conduit, Torture Realm, and Vomit Forth.

CONDUIT – THE WORLD TURNS IN SLEEP

One-man bands don’t always do it for me (as I think I’ve said before) but Portuguese solo project Conduit has such a clear vision for his sound, marrying dissonant sonic density with sinister atmospheric space.

It’s not a perfect marriage by any means (a few of the EP’s transitions and juxtapositions are still a little rough around the edges), but the shifting dynamic, moving from caustic claustrophobia – guitars seething and surging atop a torrent of heaving, hammering drums – to abyssal agoraphobia, bleak, brittle notes ringing out into the empty void, gives The World Turns in Sleep a coldly compelling sound that I’m already keen to hear more of.

This is especially true when it comes to the anxiety-inducing auditory artillery of “The Old House (Apertures)” – which introduces the project’s combination of scalding dissonance and eerie pseudo-melody – and the semi-pseudonymous “Conduit to a Threshold”… especially when the chaotic complexity and almost doom-laden aura of the latter hint at a grim, oppressive grandeur that Conduit would be fools not to capitalise on next time.

TORTURE REALM – ALTAR OF PUNISHMENT

OK, I know I said this was going to be a Death Metal focussed edition of “Short but Sweet”… and it is… but there’s no question that Torture Realm have a fair bit of Hardcore in their DNA as well.

Reminiscent in their approach to similar Death-meets-Hardcore acts like Creeping Death, Doomsday, and Fuming Mouth, the Indiana natives bring the riffs, and bring them hard, on the likes of the Dismember-ish “Eternal Crusade” and early highlight “Divine Jihad” (whose barbed hooks, battering blastbeats, and brutish climactic breakdown give off a serious whiff of Black Breath).

And while Torture Realm aren’t exactly what one would call a subtle band – the band spend all four songs railing violently against organised religion, oppressive authority, and the self-declared ruling class – on the climactic title track they showcase some unexpected melodic contrast with the song’s brooding acoustic outro (which is made even more effective by the absolutely massive chuggery which precedes it).

Sure, they’ve still got a few more miles left to march before they reach the frontlines, but that just gives them more time to sharpen their steel!

VOMIT FORTH – IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER

Both the shortest and… well, definitely not the “sweetest”, more like the nastiest… entry here, Vomit Forth‘s latest EP (the follow-up to 2024’s Terrified of God album) might be a little too ‘core for some of our readers, but for me these three tracks split the difference between Brutal Death and Deathcore just right.

“Prophecy of Defilement” is just under two-and-a-half minutes of pure sonic punishment – chugging, churning, and chattering like a many-headed, multi-limbed, mutant monstrosity as it builds to an absolutely brutal, bone-grinding finale (which also features some sickeningly low, bowel-loosening bass work) – while the unflinchingly foul and ferocious strains of “Contrition” split the difference between Devourment at their harshest and The Acacia Strain at their heaviest over the course of exactly sixty-seven savage seconds.

If anything, “Born King” is somehow even more harrowing and horrifying – the faster parts are faster, the slower parts are slower (and just plain nastier), the vocals plumb the depths and scrape the ceiling with even less restraint, and the whole song ends in an utterly apocalyptic, minute-long breakdown that just gets even more abusive and abrasive with each and every repetition and is pretty much guaranteed to leave you feeling bruised, broken and hungry for more!