TORN FABRIKS – Mind Consumption

Six songs of superior old school Thrash await listeners picking up Mind Consumption, the debut EP from Portugal’s Torn Fabriks. Composed of three veteran musicians who have served time in a number of Thrash and Metal bands based in Portugal, Mind Consumption sounds like the furious distillation of everything they learned contributing to previous projects. The production and precision of the sound impresses throughout the twenty-one minutes of the album, where every brief reduction in temp is just to provide a brief space to breathe before the next aural assault.

The power trio format in Thrash music allows for no weakness; each element faces exposure in every note and line. The best Thrash displays an equality of these elements as well, with no single instrument or voice overpowering the overall mix. Here Torn Fabriks succeeds masterfully, achieving a level of balance bands who have been playing together for decades struggle to achieve. Guitarist Jorge Matos provides a constant stream of innovative riffs along with technically adept solos, laying atop the rhythmic foundation provided by bassist Ricardo Santos and drummer Paulo Soares. Soares also provides the vocals, delivering most in a throaty growl but also displaying cleaner touches on a few of the songs. The overall effect hews close to the first few albums from My Regime, but with a slightly brighter sound.

The album begins with “Respect”, using a slow-build instrumental (accompanied by far-off screaming) before cutting loose with a earth-scorching kill riff. Santos goes in with some spoken word lyrics in the center of the song, before Matos delivers a tight solo couched within the structure of his initial riff and Soares full gallop drumming. “Idiocracy Layers” follows, beginning with a classic Thrash stop/start beat before moving into a climbing riff. The song, like most of the lyrical material on Mind Consumption, deals with certain unpleasant features of social inequality and capitalism (to get a glimpse of the band’s underlying politics, check the band’s Bandcamp page for the cover image of the single; you’ll find an alien waving a severed head with an oddly familiar head impaled on one of its flapping tentacles).

“Face It” comes next, which features a section where Santos goes into a higher range, sailing over a thunderous Soares wall of sound. “Felt The Treason” wants the listener to feel it, too, and succeeds by keeping things interesting with frequent tempo changes and switch-up, angular riffs. The fifth song, “Bring Me Down” surprises in that it is perhaps the most conventional of the six songs on the album as well as the shortest at less than three minutes. None of the tracks, wisely, exceed the four minute mark, making Mind Consumption such a quick thrill ride one finds it hard to fight the compulsion to simply look the tracks.

Closer “Evil8” begins with a sample of the Vincent Price laugh from “Thriller”, and, in another brilliantly calculated decision by the band, contrasts with “Bring Me Down” in that it is arguably the most innovative track on the EP. The outro drumming knocks all the wind out of the listener, leaving one exhilarated and ready to enter the new year with an undaunted fighting spirit.