For any band who has taken their name from another bands song you just know from the outset the parallels between the two acts are going to be hard to ignore. So it has proven with Torture Killer who have more than a passing similarity to the originators to the ‘Torture Killer’ track Six Feet Under, so much so that the bands last full length release featured none other than Mr Six Feet Under himself, Chris Barnes. The Florida / Finnish experiment lasted however only one album and Torture Killer have been left to re-establish themselves post ‘Swarm’.

Three years on and ‘Sewers’ is unleashed upon the world and while the time away has been spent re-grouping and embedding new singer Juri Sallinen, the bands sound has remained very much the same. Like ‘Swarm’ ‘Sewers’ is laden with mid-paced, groove dominated Death Metal, straight out of the Chris Barnes book of producing a Death Metal album. The band has made dramatic improvements in their writing capabilities and execution of their songs from album to album, so much so the debut release ‘For Maggots to Devour’ seems like a distant memory verses the slick and polished delivery offered up on this 29 minute gore fest.

Torture Killer know how to produce a solid Death Metal track and no mistake, ‘Crypts’, ‘I Bathe in Their Blood’ and ‘The Art of Impalement’ race along in ferocious foot stomping fashion. Never breaking into blast beat territory, ‘Sewers’ is paced well and oozes the sort of bile filled venom you’d expect and want from any gore influenced Death Metal band. The loss of Barnes on vocals might have sounded the death march for Torture Killer but in the face of adversity the band have returned in more determined mood than ever to slaughter all that stand in their way.

‘Sewers’ isn’t the most original release you’ll hear in 2009 but like all good Death Metal it shouldn’t be over analysed or dissected to within an inch of it’s life. Much of what made Death Metal the genre it is was it’s over the top disregard for acceptability and boundaries, and Torture Killer’s simplistic approach toward their music encapsulates just that. While Chris Barnes and Six Feet Under try to rekindle their creative juices that produced ‘Maximum Violence’, Torture Killer should provide a (un)healthy fillip.