Tornit - Tracklisting
Skookum
Submission
Blind My Foe
Rogue
Members
Erin Gravina - Guitars, Vocals, Bass
Bryce Hebner - Drums
Review
Tornit is the second full length album from Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal Duo Hexecutioner and has quickly followed their superb 2024 debut album Pagan Ground. The band are from Seattle, Washington with the band focusing upon the heavier, seedier and down-tuned side of Heavy Music with a subtle Psychedelic energy radiating from the speakers. The music is quite sparse and stripped back with Erin Gravina’s powerful vocals having a similar presence to the mighty ACID KING and WINDHAND. Erin also provides bass and guitar duties on the record which feels influenced by the likes of Lori S, Al Cisernos, LEMMY and Matt Pike.
Bryce Hebner provides some epic drum lines for Erin to build a loud destructive wall of noise and the drumming is quite primal and only becomes truly HEAVY when the record calls out for this style of music. The record does have a tribal stop/start rhythm throughout the album which appears very early on the epic opening track of Skookum. Imagine HIGH ON FIRE if they played at a slower and distorted pace with Hexecutioner including Psychedelic and Spaced Out Gloomy sounds into the mix.
Tornit is built upon aggressive melodies and crushing levels of AMPLIFIER DISTORTION with a killer sideline of Progressive Metal attitude allowing the record to grow HEAVIER with even more MASSIVE sounding instrumental grooves appearing throughout the rest of the record.
Hexecutioner develops an intense RITUALISTIC and TRIBAL attitude within the standout tracks Submission and Blind My Foe that slowly showcases a wondrous Space Rock theme. Erin’s vocals are rooted in Doomed Out Folklore with the excellent lyrics that accompany the music. Perhaps influenced by the works of Black Sabbath and SLEEP but Erin’s vocals have a damaged outlook to them which is one of the actual main strengths of the whole album.
Hexecutioner hold their music together with long drawn out DRONE based surroundings with the heavy Bass/Drums rhythms allowing the sludgy environments to take complete control on the final stages of each individual track. There’s a ton of sublime SONIC experimentation here with Hexecutioner demonstrating a wealth of down-tuned heaviness which allows the final track Rogue to develop into a heavier style of music you least expect.
Tornit offers a refreshing style of Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal which is quite different to Hexecutioner’s debut album. There’s similar themes and sounds on both records but Tornit allows Hexecutioner to avoid the dreaded “SOPHOMORE” curse and release an album full of breathtaking and bone-crunching grooves to play over, over and over again.
Hexecutioner are the real deal and they’ve released an album of real quality. Outstanding stuff. Enough said…
Words by Steve Howe
