With Seeds Of Torment—a collaboration between two experienced underground musicians from the Ruhr region, specifically Hattingen and Gelsenkirchen—yet another band is set to release its debut album on CD via Black Blood Records for eager listeners these days. To be more precise, the two main members are Daniel from Defected Decay (read an interesting in-depth interview here) and Suffersystem (review of the latest album here), who handles vocals and lyrics here, and Marcel from Symbontic, Hraun, and The Witches' Dream, who composed and recorded the music for this album. The press release mentions Morbid Angel and Dissection as their main influences, and so the two musicians are also wearing those bands T-shirts for the band pics. Side note: You won't find an entry for Seeds Of Torment on Metal Archives yet; there's only one band with the same name from Costa Rica listed there. But now, after all this information—some more important than others—let’s get to the core of the matter, namely the music presented here: Morbid Angel, as co-pioneers of classic US - death metal, are a natural pick, while Dissection, in my opinion, is a less obvious choice—though of course they do fit, especially on “Winged Divinity” which also features ominously whispered vocals, evoking a dark and foreboding melodic soundscape that may even have been influenced by the Swedes’ latest, rather controversial studio album “Reinkaos”—but that’s just my guess, since we’re already talking about influences here. Overall, though, the sound is considerably rougher, more direct, and less sinsister than that of the former band led by the long deceased Jön Nödtveidt—which, however, should by no means be taken negatively. On the contrary, especially in the cleverly chosen, fast-paced opener “Incantation of the Damned,” the whole thing—thanks to the frantic riffs—actually brings to mind the mighty, sadly long-gone Angelcorpse in their glory days. Nevertheless, the comparison with Morbid Angel and Dissection is fitting, as it illustrates both the brutal and straightforward elements as well as the more playful and eerie ones—all of which are equally present in Seeds of Torment’s sound. Throughout the album’s 37-minute runtime, the band skillfully varies the tempo, alternating between harsh, fast-paced sections and more playful, melodic interludes. In this way, the discerning listener never gets bored while listening to the eight tracks, and a great deal of dynamics is achieved within the ultimately narrow stylistic confines of old-school death metal. This also conveys a wide range of moods and emotions, which fits perfectly with the lyrical concept—which seems to revolve around inner struggles and the demons that lie dormant within each of us, sometimes more, sometimes less obviously. It’s apparent that experienced musicians are at work here. I’d also like to give special mention here to Daniel’s fantastic vocals; while they sound aggressive, they’re still well-articulated and almost always clearly understandable—a skill that not many death metal vocalists at this level have the ability to master. So it remains to be said that this album is an absolutely worthwhile purchase for fans of varied, neverttheless traditional death metal, especially for fans of the bands mentioned—to varying degrees, depending on one’s preferences. The atmospheric, hand-painted cover artwork (there was definitely no artificial intelligence at work here—the decision-making process can be viewed on the band’s Facebook page) also contributes to the consistently positive impression left by the album. By the way, the album—which was recorded quite some time ago—can still be ordered in tape format (released in March 2025 by Heads on Stakes Records) via the band's Bandcamp page.
