Review: TORSO ‘Brain Cells’
I love horror movies. Rock music and horror have been linked even before a certain Birmingham four-piece created music with the express desire to scare the shit out of people and named themselves after a flick playing opposite their rehearsal space. When I was at university, there was a store that rented VHS tapes (for the younger readers, they were like those retro cassettes, but for film) including an extensive selection of video nasties for the bargain price of £1 and I saw countless B-movie, grindhouse and all kinds of terrible, yet great films.
Formed from the ashes of Possessor, whose Damn The Light album still ranks among my favourites from APF Records, rose TORSO. Essentially the one-man show of former frontman and guitar maestro Graham Bywater, the band wasted little time in rising like the offspring of some cabin-in-the-woods dwelling, supernatural psycho with their debut album A Crash Course In Terror in 2023. Ably reviewed by my colleague David J McLaren, the first entry into this undead franchise was an incredibly fun twenty-nine minutes and seven tracks of horror-inspired grime that leaned on a slightly indulgent use of samples.
Back for another round, Brains Cells (a tongue-in-cheek reference to the effect on the cerebrum the making of the album had on its creator) is an expanded eight tracks that push the runtime to a positively prog length thirty-one minutes which Bywater describes as ‘a lo-fi, sci-fi/ horror story in eight chapters, created to make your skin crawl with a venomous dose of bloodthirsty garage splatter rock for all the freaks’.
Setting the scene with the first of many samples that will weave through the album (and seemingly addressing one of David’s observations from the debut as this time they feel better integrated, more a part of the organic journey) You Belong In Hell erupts into frantic, scuzzy sounding picking and drumming.
The echoey vocals are shot through with Bywater’s trademark growl, which manages to be gruff throughout the staccato, machine gun-like passages yet open up into DIY basement-punk-sounding melodic passages. The moody atmospherics are topped off by a spiky solo that feels like The Ramones on a bad acid trip before the track comes down a notch, finished off by the obligatory sample.
This deranged, almost pop-like quality continues on Blood Frenzy as the pounding drums and grimy-sounding bass gives way to high-speed, rhythmical tremolo guitar, the rapid-fire notes blurring into a black metal meets thrash fashion as the changing rhythms slam against each other as Bywater spits and howls the blood splattered lyrics. More bullish than the opener, the chugging bass provides the backbones alongside the frenetic percussion allowing the guitar to career across the track, striking blows or caressing you within moments, before ending on a delirious computer game-sounding garble of noise.
The opening taut stick work of Savage Magic, an instrumental featuring the sampled voice of Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis, gives way to ominous power slides, chord runs and feedback which in turn lead to a smouldering guitar burn. This short interlude has a panache that keeps the momentum and atmosphere flowing whilst keeping the theme on point and paying homage to the creator of the splatter movie genre.
an old-school death ‘n’ roll vibe that sounds like a buzzsaw as the Big Muff tones and overdriven riffs thrum like angry wasps…
Deep Space Death Trip has an old-school death ‘n’ roll vibe that sounds like a buzzsaw as the Big Muff tones and overdriven riffs thrum like angry wasps. Incredibly catchy and gritty, it distils TORSO’s ability to pen tunes that have a dirty DIY lo-fi feel and evoke the movies that inspired Bywater but has the same over-the-top hooks and listenability as the likes of KISS. With the loose bass-led breakdown and bug-killing quote, comes a defiant gang chorus and the snotty swagger of a man who is having fun and doesn’t care if you get on board or get out of the way as there’s no slowing down on this ride.
Another heavy groove as Skin Crawl / Trepanator sees Bywater raving about being a ‘space assassin’ and making ‘your skin crawl’. Amongst the grindhouse din and scything cacophony, you can hear the tongue-in-cheek humour present in the lyrics that all good B Movies have. Slightly winking to the audience doesn’t detract from the musicianship as the manic guitar and churning drum sequences run for nearly half the length maintaining a constant assault on the senses as the bass noodles over the track.
The first single Hex Pest gets back to that spooky upbeat tempo with clashing vibes and a choral harmony running beneath the surface. Urgent and relentlessly belligerent, it retains a demented surf pop/punk melody whilst grasping at a similar vibe to early White Zombie releases, part industrial, part grungy collision of cartoon over-the-top violence and gleeful celebration of obscure cultural references.
The second interlude and title track, Brain Cells, features extended samples that set the scene for a moody, Carpenter-esque instrumental that feels ripped right out of an ‘80s, straight to video release, before the finale of Drop The Casket barrels in with an urgent drum intro.
Retaining that low-end hum, the last track is a robust mid-paced banger that has smashing percussion, choppy riffing and shouted title refrain with additional vocals from Lisa Bywater. Ending with electronic sounds and a crashing effect you almost want one more sample about the dead, or death, or something but TORSO bow out leaving the music to do the talking.
Mastered by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, the album has the right balance between sounding deliberately fuzzy, yet never diluting the complex musicianship to ensure it retains the ‘aural equivalent of a dayglo Dario Argento movie shot during an apocalypse in the early 90s’.
Highly entertaining from start to finish, Brain Cells is a great sequel from the band and one that is definitely more like the second Evil Dead than Book of Shadows Blair Witch 2.
Label: APF Records
Band Links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden
