Review by Ben for Tormentor - Anno Domini (1989)

I'm rather torn when it comes to Tormentor's cult demo / album Anno Domini. On the one hand, this album is massively important and it’s hard to argue how influential it was to a scene just getting started. But on the other hand, listening to it today is not as entertaining as I'd hoped. While Bathory's albums still manage to move me over 20 years later, Anno Domini is more of a hit and miss affair.

Back in 1988, there had not been too many bands that had dared to take what Bathory started and push it a step further into the abyss. Tormentor created ferocious black metal with a massive dose of thrash, that certainly stood out from a very small pack as far as pure unadulterated wickedness. While obviously influenced by Quorthon and Venom, there's something truly feral about this release. A sort of chaotic madness that's missing from almost everything recorded since the mid-nineties. I guess a big reason for this is the inclusion of scene legend Attila Csihar on vocals. His accented style is both bizarre and hugely effective and it's easy to see why Mayhem plucked him up for the De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas recording after Dead...well...died.

Unfortunately, there are just not enough great moments on the album for me to label it anything other than important and cult. I enjoy Tormentor I, Heaven, Damned Grave and Apocalypse well enough, but the majority of the other 9 tracks range from extremely awkward to merely average. Most of the shorter tracks, such as Anno Domini, Transylvania and Trance are forgettable and even the classic Elizabeth Bathory comes across as a slightly clumsy (yet admittedly memorable) attempt at an epic, thematical piece. All up I guess this album certainly deserves its place in history alongside Sarcofago's INRI, and so I can't be too harsh. But I just don't think it holds up all that well today and, in the end, that's when I'm writing this review.