Excruciation

Excruciation emerged in 1984 as a Zurich-based Swiss metal outfit whose style fuses death, doom, and thrash while exploring emotional, physical, and existential despair. In its initial phase the band drew from the extreme metal underground, favoring a lethal pace and an unyielding focus on brutality, qualities evident on Last Judgement, the 1987 release issued by Chainsaw Murder. The 1988 self-released Prophecy of Immortality, together with the EPs Abyss of Time from 1989 and Act of Despair from 1990, followed a comparable thrash-oriented path; a 2024 remaster and reissue of Prophecy of Immortality now gathers those three recordings into a single package. Act of Despair ultimately marked the group’s final statement before it disbanded the next year.

When Excruciation returned in 2005, a revised lineup and a pronounced turn toward death and doom reshaped its approach, resulting two years later in the muscular and melancholic Angels to Some Demons to Others. That same trajectory shaped the albums that followed—[T]horns in 2009, [G]host in 2014, [C]rust in 2016, [E]met in 2019, and [P]ain in 2024—where dense riffs, cavernous atmospherics, and unrelenting force remain central.