Review by Fernando on October 13, 2025.

Polish death metal is one of those styles that you really can’t go wrong with, while I wouldn’t call it comfort food due to very obvious reasons, it’s definitely a very reliable source of extreme metal, particularly when it comes to the underground, and despite my own extended burnout to death metal due to the revival trend of the late 2010s, I still dip my toes in those filthy waters to find some rotten and mean metal.

Tortured Corpse is a Silesian newcomer, and their newest EP, Sinister Death follows their debut full-length, and while I decided to jump in blind, I was surprised to hear this band play death metal that’s as vicious as it is wretched (in a good way). From the get go the band does a good job at displaying brutality and intensity with a classicism that’s reverential yet not a hollow pantomime, this record is most definitely indebted to early death metal, but they make sure it's the more aggressive and for lack of a better term, mean spirited version of metal, the one that makes you think and picture a pit of bloody sludge covered in severed limbs or a particularly gory butcher’s shop, and in that regard Tortured Corpse really do live up to their name.

Production-wise, the band also takes a lot of cues from the sound of the early '90s; the songs sound very full, and the mixing is heavy on the low end, but it doesn’t sound muffled or overbearing. They expertly balance their brutality and high gain without ever becoming too cavernous or overbearing, which is something I personally appreciate. My only issue with the production and mixing is how the bass is sadly buried. While I understand wanting all the strings to sound uniform and there’s a good focus on the guitars sounding intense, I still feel the downplaying of the bass keeps the music from having more dynamics. The use of samples from horror movies to evoke zombies and slashers does help in this regard to create a good atmosphere, even if it gets a bit repetitive in places.

Another aspect I found interesting was the inclusion of 2 covers by Massacre and Death. I normally don’t mind covers, but since this is a 5-song EP and it ends on two covers, I expect them to at least make the covers interesting. To the band’s credit they do a good job at adapting their sound with these death metal classics and it is consistent with their own songs but a part of me feels these covers are a bit too obvious, maybe if they had featured one I wouldn’t mind but at the end of the day, as an EP the covers work perfectly fine as they are.

Tortured Corpse ultimately does a really good job at distilling death metal, paying due respect to their influences while also making their own mark. While it does get a tad repetitive in sections, which isn’t helped by a lack of spotlight on the bass, and featuring 2 covers prevents me from giving a higher recommendation. This is still a nice and concise package of excellent death metal for those who still enjoy their share of brutal and mean songs about death and decay.

Rating: 7 out of 10