Listen: Tortorum Is Better Than Their Name

An old lady chides her teen granddaughter about her antisocial hairstyle, urging her to let people see her pretty face unobstructed. That’s the equivalent of my gripe about hopelessly obscure band names. Yes, like the high school girl who hides self-consciously behind her locks, each band must express their vibe — but not to their own detriment: A great unknown band can undermine the process of gaining new fans via an unwieldy, unsnappy name. Take Tortorum, whose moniker requires a four-step internet search to learn that it is Latin for “torturers.”

And it doesn’t sound very cool, like the similarly unknowable names of genre-mates Watain and Marduk. So, though we might opt to, so to speak, reach out and part their coif to see that foxy faccia and nod approvingly — we may just pass on the band altogether cuz their name conjures images of a symposium on civil litigation. Your move :) Crank a jam below and full stream at Terrorizer (here).

Tortorum’s Katabasis (whatever that means) is out now on World Terror Committee. Get it here.