Artist: Demolition Hammer
Album: Tortured Existence
Release Date: February 18, 1991
Label: Century Media Records
Genre: Thrash Metal / Death-Thrash
Description
*Tortured Existence* is the ferocious debut album from New York’s Demolition Hammer, an uncompromising statement of speed, aggression, and technical brutality. Released at the height of the early ’90s thrash-death crossover, it stands as one of the most savage and underrated records of the era.
The album captures the raw energy of late-’80s thrash but pushes the intensity into near-death-metal territory — razor-sharp riffing, machine-gun drumming, and caustic vocals that channel pure chaos. Songs like “Infectious Hospital Waste,” “Crippling Velocity,” and “Hydrophobia” deliver relentless precision while maintaining a gritty, street-level heaviness.
With Scott Burns handling production at Morrisound Studios (a hallmark of the era’s heaviest releases), Tortured Existence sounds as vicious as it plays — a perfect blend of thrash discipline and death-metal ferocity. Its lyrical themes of corruption, violence, and human decay mirror the intensity of the music, making it a visceral and unapologetic listen from start to finish.
For fans of early Sepultura, Morbid Saint, Sadus, Slayer, or Dark Angel, this is essential — an album that embodies the crossover between thrash and death before it became a scene cliché.