“The main goal of the band is to express our adoration to the dark side and channel the dark energies through this medium,” warns Tortorum founder Skyggen. “We proudly perform black metal, Satan’s art, as we feel this is the best way for us to reach the higher levels of spiritual fulfillment and to kindle the black flames in our hearts.”
Indeed, a scan through Tortorum’s nefarious oeuvre reveals the Norwegians (with Brit Barghest on bass/vocals) aren’t practitioners of hitting church in their Sunday best. Since 2010, they’ve released two full-lengths, the last of which was 2014’s Katabasis, a crusher of an album thankfully not in the traditional Norwegian style. Rather closer to Swedes Valkyrja or Gehenna’s Admirion Black. Nevertheless, it’s evil all the same.
Over the last few years, they’ve seen drummer Dirge Rep (ex-Enslaved, Gehenna) depart, but that wasn’t enough to keep the saturninely-inspired unit out of commission. Skyggen moved from guitar to drums, while new guitarist Andreas Fosse Salbu (Reptilian) joined the fold to fill in for the second guitar slot. As a reconfigured Tortorum, they produced a new EP, Rotten. Dead. Forgotten. As wicked as Extinctionist and Katabasis, the group’s newest infernal creations offer a dark, deadlier side to Tortorum. There’s true death metal imbued inside Rotten. Dead. Forgotten.‘s corpsified edifice.
Before we lookup more adjectives to further describe Tortorum’s take on black metal, here’s “Night of the Witch” off Rotten. Dead. Forgotten. Welcome to Black Monday!
Tortorum’s new EP, Rotten. Dead. Forgotten., is out October 13th (lucky Friday the 13th) on W.T.C. Productions. While pre-orders are not yet available, track them HERE or check out more Tortorum product HERE.
