Torquemada Italy

"Torquemada from Italy er one of the more obscure bands on the scene, and this is their debut album, and only album so far. The musical style on this album is a sort of thrash metal with emphasis on groove, and this album certainly has a lot of good moments. Being a product of the 90s, however, it seems to be influenced by the alternative rock and metal wave of the time, which means that, perhaps because of the nu metal that started to emerge atthat time, there are no guitar solos whatsoever on this album,which is entirely riff-driven. I think this is a shame, because a lot of the songs sound the same, and guitar solos could have added just that extra dimension needed.

Productionwise, there is a very DIY-feel to this album, which has a quite raw production sound... somthing that I can appreciate to some extent. The problem, however, is that the production combined with the simplistic nature of the music, makes this release sound thin and kind of unfinished.

Anyhow, "Sevenfold" by Torquemada is an obscure album, which should be of interest to thrash metal and groove metal aficionados, and it does have, as mentioned, a number of good moments.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"