Thy Serpent’s Cult, the debut EP from France’s Torture Throne has a lot working in the band’s favor. However, there’s also a cornucopia of issues working against it. This is a novice band just piecing together their visions of what great death metal should be so a ton of flack won’t be tossed their way. They are young rookies, after all.

Torture Throne play a style of death metal similar to that heard many, many years ago during the explosion of the Swedish death metal scene. The obvious nods to Left Hand Path, Like an Ever Flowing Stream, Penetralia, etc are all over this one. Sporting that familiar buzzy guitar tone and tortured vocals, fans of the NWOSDM scene will probably dig this one as well.

With that said, Thy Serpent’s Cult is far from groundbreaking or revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination. The guitars are too thin in the final mix and the drums have virtually no meat to them; far too clicky and pitter-patter to make any sort of indelible impression on the listener. Luckily Torture Throne don’t try to get too fancy with technical prowess or throw in nonsensical melodies for the sake of trying to stand out; they play honest, old fashioned Swedish-styled death metal.

If Torture Throne sticks around long enough to find their own true identity rather than trying to rehash what’s already been created over two decades ago, there’s enough potential to make them interesting. They proudly wear their influences all over their jean jackets and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But in order to “make it” in this industry, there has to be some sort of ingenuity or originality, two things that these young dudes don’t yet possess. Given proper time, they could blossom into something of splendor, but as of right now, before they’ve even released a proper full-length album, they’re just another in a long line of bands who love vintage Entombed, Dismember, Hypocrisy, et al.

[Visit the band's website]

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