The delightfully-named Everlasting Torment is a two-track EP (available digitally and on 7”) from crossover thrash / punk / hardcore duo High Command. Following on from the band’s 2019 debut album, Beyond The Wall Of Desolation, Everlasting Torment continues the band’s fascination with old school thrash and white-knuckle hardcore. The EP’s themes, meanwhile, are best left to the band to explain:
“In an age of mystery where knowledge is shared through steel, Everlasting Torment offers two fables of esoteric savagery. Gaze upon the sanguine dawn where ancient lands were carved by ice & stone. Scream for mercy as you bare [sic] witness to an arcane god’s unquenchable thirst for bloodshed. Ride the frost winds north to the fantastical lands of Secartha. See where the madness began…”
Very much adhering to the thrash elements of their DNA, Everlasting Torment opens in pure Slayer territory, the opening riff harking back to Reign In Blood, although the death-infused and tar-thick verse cleaves closer to the unholy musings of Autopsy. However, the band’s hardcore roots are never far behind and, just as the crepuscular doom threatens to close in on the claustrophobic listener, a frantic riff rings out and the track suddenly leaps forward in a frenzied assault that leaves you bloodied and battered. It’s a brave band that apes Slayer only to head off at a tangent, but High Command have the nous to pull it off, and the EP’s title track proves to be an impressively abrasive and multi-faceted slab heavy metal, even if the overall effect is as primal as it comes. The b side is the lengthy Sword Of Wisdom. A track that takes its time to emerge, Sword Of Wisdom is no less savage than its forebear, it simply takes a little longer to swing its most ferocious blow. When it falls, it’s in the form of a taut thrash groove, complete with searing leads and deathly gargles. It collapses amidst the sound of studio-based devastation and satanic laughter, which echoes as the needle slips into the run-off groove, marking the end of an all-too-short EP.
A short, sharp shock, Everlasting Torment harks back to Slayer’s earliest days, back when Kerry King wore spleen-puncturing spikes, and the band were as likely to cover TSOL as they were to dance with the devil. With the likes of Autopsy and early Metallica also providing influence, the EP is a sweet throwback to the roots of thrash and, whilst it does not seek to reinvent the wheel, the band assault the tracks with all the piss and vinegar of their influences. 8/10
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