COCK AND BALL TORTURE — Sadochismo (review)

COCK AND BALL TORTURE — Sadochismo album cover

Album · 2001 · Pornogrind

3/5 · 2020-04-20
Vim Fuego

With a band name like Cock and Ball Torture, you know you’re not going to get high art, but you can reasonably expect something extreme and nasty. “Sadochismo” is extreme and nasty, but not how you’d normally expect.

The opening track is called “Where Girls Learn To Piss On Command”. Right, nasty enough sounding so far. The first riff has something of a steady groove, and feels like it’s preparing to burst into something heavier and faster. Waiting... there’s the cum-gargling vocals. Can’t understand a thing because they are pitch-shifted to monstrous levels. Waiting... yes, there’s the double time section, and here comes the blast beat... waiting... waiting... more double time, surely it’s time for the blast beat... waiting. And that’s the end of the song. What?

OK, second track “Heterosexual Testosterone Compressor”, here we go. Ominous riff, feels like it’s building to something. There’s the horny grumbling crocodile vocals again. Oh good, a double time section… and an impending bla... nope, slowed down again. Ooh, a massive breakdown. Surely it’s time for a blast beat. Waiting... OK, double time, yes, yes, yes... no, no, no... hmm... finished again without the orgasmic release of a blast beat.

In the world of modern home-made porn, this is known as edging, or prick teasing in the old days. The victim is aroused to the edge of climax, and then... stimulation is withdrawn and they deflate again, as it were. The delicious torment continues, building to a massive, gushing, shuddering release of pleasure and ecstasy... but it never arrives. Nope. This entire mostly mid-paced album is without blastbeats!

There are other sorts of extremity on show though. “Instant Onanizer” is the most unsettling track here. Have you ever seen a Japanese porno? If not, don’t go out searching for it online. Let’s just say that female participants do not enjoy these movies. So of course, these sickos have a sample from such a flick (no, it’s not a fucking snuff movie. Even perverts have standards!). Domination and humiliation are the main objective here. You’ll either be disgusted or aroused, or disgusted that you’re aroused. And then there’s a few seconds of music.

None of this album is a comfortable listen in any way, but at the same time is somewhat hypnotic. The three-piece band do hit massive grooves, and it’s speaker-wreckingly heavy at times. The song titles are amusingly filthy – “Kamikaze Incest”, “Aphrodisianus” or “Cellulite Convoy” anyone? And the lyrics are probably along a similar line, but who the fuck can tell? Pornogrind’s most extreme element is also it’s weakest – the vocals. Yes, the voice is another instrument, and is as distorted as the other instruments, but that also renders it a bit useless to convey anything other than sound shapes. This is the reason John Tardy originally didn’t have set lyrics to Obituary’s songs. He wanted to make the right noises for the songs, and the words didn’t matter. Unfortunately, Sascha’s sicko gurgling don’t compare to Tardy in the slightest. Oh well, at least it sounds extreme as fuck.

The other problem with playing heavy and extreme is that there’s little variety in the songs. True, it’s a pretty good initial sound, but there’s little to differentiate between “Enema Bulldozer” and “G-spot Gigolo” (couldn’t resist another couple of song titles!). There’s not even a lot of variation in tempo.

In the end, this album leaves you with a case of grindcore blue balls (or the equivalent organ, whatever your gender orientation). It teases, titillates, and tortures, but ultimately doesn’t deliver.