Tormentor
Anno Domini

This album takes us back to the darkest and most romantic '80s, those of hand-photocopied posters and demo tapes circulating throughout Europe. In 1988, the Hungarian band Tormentor recorded 'Anno Domini', but too poor to release it on vinyl and distribute it, they left it at the mercy of time, dissolving and entrusting the sacred relic to some scant tape versions. When Attila Csihar, the band's singer, arrived in Norway to record with Mayhem, the fame of his band had also reached there, making him a cult figure. Nocturnal Art would later prepare a version of the album, introducing the group even beyond the underground circuits.

It takes just 38 minutes of music to influence half of the '90s black metal: from the unruly and “rock‘n’roll” rhythms of "Transylvania", led by Gyorgy's frantic bass, Carpathian Forest would derive Black Shining Leather. The ability to create stifling atmospheres by combining the speed of German thrash with the coldness of keyboards in "Beyond" would indelibly mark Emperor; Dissection would dedicate a cover to the most famous track from the album and the group, "Countess Bathory", so similar to the Swedish atmospheres.

The average technical quality of the group is much higher than the majority of black metal bands and stands at the level of Satyricon, Dissection, Limbonic Art: the maturity of a group on its first album is striking, already able to put the individual skills at the service of the project. The drumming work by Machat and the lead guitar work by Szigeti would significantly influence De mysteriis DOM Sathanas.

Attila Csihar's creativity stands out (here still under the stage name Mayhem), great at modulating his voice across different registers adapting to the mood of the track. Always pacified and kind with others, this musician mythologized by the scene would, however, be forced to live by means of survival due to the cynical rules keeping the underground alive, dividing his time between tutoring in physics and mathematics and music: it is perhaps thanks to this humanity that the group managed not to cross that borderline dividing horror from tacky (as would happen to Cradle of Filth, greedy for the money that comes in from their continual straying into thrash).

On a strictly musical level, it is surprising how the narrowness of influences suffered by the band can generate such a wide range of proposals: enclosed in the even more closed Hungary, the group managed to assimilate the few records that arrived (few were extreme, Sodom and Kreator, more were Metal) elaborating a personal and original sound, which mixes contrasting atmospheres like the horror of Merciful Fate, the theatrical of Venom, and the extremism of German thrash. A mixture, as mentioned, that would be recovered by many ex-extreme bands at the end of their careers or in crisis (like Cradle of Filth, Darkthrone, and Satyricon) to recycle themselves to a larger audience.

Whether one likes it or not (listening might be hindered by the excessive attention to Attila or the historical distance of the album) 'Anno Domini' is the pinnacle of that first wave of extreme music labeled the '80s, no longer thrash, not yet black metal; more varied and profound than Bathory; more incisive and thoughtful than Sarcofago and Morbid (who also thrived on choreographic excesses); better than Mayhem's Deathcrush, Tormentor shares the throne of '80s dark music (except for death) with Celtic Frost, more experimental and dedicated to other sounds.