Eden Beast
Torturing The Odd Human Mind

I still can't believe I managed to get through it. I still can't believe I was able to listen to "all" 6 tracks that make up this DEMO. And this, not because of the music the band offers, but because my ears and eardrums were not yet fully shaped to understand and make this kind of sound my own. And, believe me, to make this record mine, I had to listen to it many times. And, weirdly enough, the more I listened, the more I liked it.

Without too much chatter, I'd like to quickly go over a biography of Eden Beast, a completely Italian and Piedmontese band formed in 2002, when the band, although still "immature," dedicated itself to a direct sound of classic thrash-death metal. Later, also due to various line-up changes, the band opted for a different, more brutal sound. Thus, it shifted from thrash-death to more extreme and evil brutal-death. And it is precisely in 2008 that their first DEMO "Torturing The Odd Human" came to light, an album that reflects what has been said.

Moving on to an analysis focused on the musical offering, I must say the interesting thing is that, despite the band offering this kind of "brutal" sound, it succeeds in different moments to be original and innovative, never descending into the tacky.

Let's be clear: when we talk about brutal, we already know what we're up against: very tight guitars, a lot of groove, and many growls that seem like infernal barks mixed with vomit retches. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the booklet inside the album is practically without lyrics. After all, listening to the singer, you really can't understand a damn thing.

However, I must give credit to the singer, Sirio, who, despite keeping the massive "growl" component, manages to modulate his vocal cords even in parts where the voice seems cleaner, less cavernous, and thus more human. As for Fabio, the guitarist, I have to compliment him. Truly ingenious, together with the drummer (Fasa, of whom I'll tell you in a moment) he manages to build beautiful guitar phrases that immediately grab the attention of whoever is listening. For example, in the title track, it moves from a typically "brutal-death" fury to an interlude where the band seems to want to take a moment's rest and decides to "step back." The violence doesn't subside, but you hear the guitar no longer busy unleashing fast, murderous riffs, but instead intent on capturing the listener's attention by creating a very beautiful melody built first on arpeggios and then on wonderful melodic riffs that wouldn't do well with the previously unleashed violence.

Special mention goes to the instrumental "Sound Of Thousands Agonizing Corpses," all psychedelic, without guitars and brutal devastations. Regarding the rhythm section... Well, without a doubt, Vitto and Fasa (respectively bassist and drummer) do their duty, but it's on the drummer that I'd like to focus. A true monster of the instrument, truly exceptional. He manages to make the songs unique with tempo changes and various rhythms, not to mention some tribal inserts placed at the end of "Metal Illness"... Mind-blowing!

A final note on the production, points that need definite improvement. Although quite good, it should be a bit cleaner. But it is a "small defect" that most likely fans of this genre won't even notice (and let's remember that we are talking about a DEMO... I await the album for confirmation).

In conclusion, we are facing a nice little disc of extreme metal, sung (can we say "sung"?) in a nearly infernal manner, excellently played and brutally to the extreme. An album that, unfortunately, will not be accessible to everyone's tastes, given the extreme malice and power that the band manages to unleash (not to mention Sirio's growls that at times seem like a raging demon thirsty for blood).

Without a doubt passed!

For further listening, I recommend anyone interested to visit the band's Myspace at the following address: http://www.myspace.com/edenbeastdeathmetal where you can listen to 4 tracks that do not appear on the demo I reviewed, to get an idea of Eden Beast's musical offer.