Review: GENOCIDE PACT “Order Of Torment”

GENOCIDE PACT “Order Of Torment”
Relapse records

Genocide Pact released Order of Torment through their label, Relapse Records on 2nd Feb 2018. They’ve gifted us with 8 tracks, 40 minutes of music – and this is the bands’ second full length recording, the first being Forged Through Domination in 2015.

Connor Donegan (of Lung Matter and Abuse) blasts the drums for us here. Michael Nolan plays bass guitar (away from his Disciples of Christ) grindcore band and then we have Tim Mullaney on vocals and guitar (also away from Disciples of Christ). A busy set of musicians to be sure!

If you’re unfamiliar with Genocide Pact then let me tell you that these Americans are not performing grindcore in any shape of the term here. This release is straight up, chunky and somewhat familiar sounding Death Metal. Mid paced for the most part, slowing down to a crawl in places.

Let’s play the comparison game: I hear Cannibal Corpse riffs in their track Pain Reprisal – a blatant wink to the Floridians, done well. In truth though, Genocide Pact lean far more toward paying homage to British death metal kings Bolt Thrower. I’ll go as far as to say it sounds like it should have been released by Earache Records in the early 90’s and have MOSH 26 printed on the back. Now, I love this stuff, I grew up on it – so why do I get the feeling that I’ve heard it all before with Order of Torment? Because I have… They play it well to be sure but it’s just so unoriginal.

Production in the audio department is in keeping with the album, passable and nothing startling. The artwork for Order of Torment is again, nothing new, nothing special. Passable.

Courtesy of Antichrist Magazine, I hear a lot of extreme music and I’m always excited to give a band its due. I’m just sad to write that this time – I’m not so impressed.