Album Review: Basement Torture Killings – There’s Something About Beryl (Grindscene Records)

UK grindcore band, Basement Torture Killings have been going since 2007 & this year marks their 10 year anniversary. It also marks the release of their new album, There’s Something About Beryl due on on April 7th 2017 via Grindscene Records.

11 songs of pummelling grindcore, There’s Something About Beryl is 34 minutes of untamed brutality. A wall of noise filled with dirty riffs, pounding bass, furious drumming & vomit-inducing vocals. On A Mountain Road opens the gates with its ‘to the point’ hyper speed pace.

It’s interesting that it’s followed by the album title, There’s Something About Beryl clocks in at over 4 minutes. Grindcore should be short, punchy slabs of destruction as it often can’t sustain itself for too long.

Basement Torture Killings do a decent job of it though. It’s an aggressive song but ends up suffering from fatigue as it goes on. A change in beat after a while breathes some freshness in too it but it’s not enough to save it.

This is a common problem throughout the album. Going on for a minute + longer then it should have. After a while a lot of the songs start to blend into each other, a common issue with this kind of music. The band try to stop boredom setting in with these sudden brief switches & guitar solos. On songs like The Story of T & The Taxi Driver they work great, the latter in particular having a killer guitar solo.

Where Basement Torture Killings really excels though is with the mega short blasts of pissed off metal. Shit Carcass is barely a minute long but is instantly more memorable thanks to its desperate sound.

Even if you’re a fan of the grind sound, the album begins to drag as it reaches The Butcher of Smithfield. It’s far from a bad album, in fact it’s one of the more listenable albums in this sub-genre. Unfortunately it becomes very difficult to separate different tracks.

High-speed clashing of instruments & the intensely heavy vocals keeps things furious throughout. It’s a hell of a record to have to analysis & the reality is that if you hated grindcore before this it won’t change your mind much.

There’s Something About Beryl Full Track Listing:

1. On a Mountain Road
2. There’s Something About Beryl
3. The Story of T
4. The Rat Catcher
5. The Taxi Driver
6. Shit Carcass
7. Necrophiled and Cannibalised
8. The Butcher of Smithfield
9. Abduction Torture Snuff Porn
10. Knives (Therapy Cover)
11. Herr Krauss, Arzt des Todes

You can pre-order the album & pick up some merchandise here. You can find out more about the band on Facebook & check out some of their music on Myspace, ReverbNation, TuneIn, Deezer & on YouTube. Check out Grindscene Records for other music & merch.

Finally Basement Torture Killings will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary as part of a stellar bill on April 1st 2017. You can pick up your tickets here.