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Funny story: I get this mailer from Triquetra Media with a CD from a band called Torture, which I don't think anything of because there must be a hundred bands called "Torture", right? So I'm reading through the promo sheet, and they mention this band has been around since 1986 and released an EP called "Terror Kingdom", and I'm like "wait a second". See, just the night before I was going through a box of old tapes (remember cassettes?) and I ran across that very EP, which I picked up used something like sixteen years ago. So I go to the drawer where I stuck it and I'm like "no shit, it's the same band." Seems Torture were a badass underground Thrash band from Texas back in the day, and this was their debut, put together for Mexican label Beta Records in something like two days.

So I can't even remember if I liked this or not, it's been so long since I heard it. So in the spirit of curiosity I slap the tape in and POW! Instant Thrash, just add nostalgia. I remember I only bought this because it has a song on it called "Whips Of The Antichrist", and how in the hell can you go wrong with a song title like that? I guess I didn't give this a good enough listen back then, because this is just killer stuff. The production, done on a shoestring in a couple of days, is what would be charitably called 'rough', but that old 80s magic shines through. After a rather annoying two-minute keyboard intro, they launch right into the stomping "Into The Darkness" – steely riffs, endless energy, good, ballsy thrash vocals – headbanger fuel all the way. "Whips Of The Antichrist" is an instrumental, but a THRASH instrumental. My tape version then repeats the damned intro. Fortunately side 2 features the very cool "Power Metal" and the eight-minute workout "Terror Kingdom" with nothing to get in the way. No bullshit, only Thrash.

Torture were a bunch of high-school kids when they banged this out, and it just shines with classic, old-school magic that can't be beat. Funny to get a promo from a band whose EP has been sitting in my closet since about 1989. They have apparently reformed, and their newest accomplishment is the re-release of their underappreciated follow-up album "Storm Alert". I'll get to that one presently, but for now I'm grooving on this nifty little thrash artifact from the good old days. Probably hard to find, but a gem nonetheless.