UMUR
"Internal Caustic Torments" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Wombbath. The album was released through Thrash Records in March 1993. It follows the release of the band´s January 1992 demo "Brutal Mights" and their June 1992 "Several Shapes" EP. Wombbath formed in 1988 under The Shadows monicker but changed their name to Seizure in 1990. They however quickly discovered that another band was using the Seizure name and changed their band name to Wombbath.
Stylistically the material on "Internal Caustic Torments" continue the brutal US influenced death metal style of the demo and the EP, which makes sense as one track from the demo and two tracks from the EP have been re-recorded and included here. It´s fans of artists like Deicide, Sinister, Cannibal Corpse, and Brutality who are recommended to listen to the album. The vocals are abysmal deep growling, but they are still intelligible, which is quite impressive. Lead vocalist Tomas Lindfors deserves a special mention for his commanding and aggressive delivery, which is a great asset to the band´s music.
Wombbath may be a very brutal death metal act, but there is a little more to them than that, and they often include brutal thrash influenced riffs (and not as often but just as important some well played leads and atmosphere enhancing keyboards), and very heavy and groove laden riffs in their music, which provide an otherwise relentlessly brutal album with some variation. I hear nods towards Suffocation and Dying Fetus in the way some of the heavy grooves are used in the music, and considering that "Internal Caustic Torments" was released in 1993, this is actually a pretty early example of theses types of heavy grooves in death metal.
"Internal Caustic Torments" features a raw, organic, and powerful sounding production, which provides the music with the right gloomy and morbid platform to shine. A perfect production for this type of music. History is full of death metal acts from the early 90s, who released a sole album and then disbanded (Wombbath are one of those who reunited in the new millenium), and in many cases that was for the better, as they really didn´t bring much more than cloned mediocrity to the table, but that´s certainly not the case with Wombbath, who released what I consider a gem that hasn´t been celebrated near enough considering the high quality of its content. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.