Cult BDM band Broken Torso and their new frontier of Deathpressive Merchandising

The Background

In 2000, the underground death metal scene gained a new contender as Broken Torso swept in with their release of The Ultimate Abhorrence. The Austrian one-and-done act went complete silent for the remains of history, with there never being even a hint of new music possibly being released. They dropped 500 cd copies of the album on Buzo Records, along with a 2018 cassette issue on Von Frost Records. There wasn't any background on any of the members before or after the album released. Fans who managed to grab a cd copy were left with the message, "Broken Torso would like to dedicate this album to all people, who have found their own way of living without hatred, greed and materialism." After that, Broken Torso were thought to have been left into obscurity as time moved on. Thankfully the new age of the internet brought in some life into the small fanbase. For an unknown reason, sometime in April, The Ultimate Abhorrence was taken off streaming services. But miraculously, in May of 2026, it was revealed that The Ultimate Abhorrence would be getting a cd and cassette reissue on Deathpressive Merchandising and Rotten Despire Musick. Could it be because of the growing number of followers as the internet continues to breath life into forgotten metal acts? We may never know. But it is great to see such a high quality project get the recognition it deserves, whether with new fans, or a label reissue.

Album cover for The Ultimate Abhorrence, credited to Andy Tautscher

Members of Broken Torso

Deathpressive Merchandising and Rotten Despire Musick

Deathpressive Merchandising is a Southern Asian merchandising company that specializes in underground extreme metal. Starting sometime in may, their website held a post explaining their excitement about, "the opportunity to reissue The Ultimate Abhorrence, the debut and final album by the long-defunct Austrian death metal band, Broken Torso." So there goes the one album commitment set in stone. They claim to have an "exclusive license" with the band to make a limited reissue of the album. This comes with a classic release of typical metal band long-sleeved shirts and hoodies aswell. In the comments of Instagram posts they have made about the reissue, the company says that a Bandcamp release and woven patches will also be dropped "soon." It is also stated in the same posts the Iron Fortress Records will be distributing some of the product for the US market.

The whole reissue is marketed as a collaboration between Deathpressive and Rotten Despire Musick. But I'm having a hard time in finding what role Rotten Despire plays in the reissue. My guess is that they're just producing the cds and cassettes, as the logo is shown on the cd display image on the Deathpressive website. It's just odd to see they have no advertising about the reissue nor any redirection to Deathpressive on the Rotten Despire website. The reissue is set contain only 500 copies yet again. The design and layout is stated to be approved by the front man of the band, Chris Christop. It is possible that they got in contact with the band using their 26 year old Hotmail listed on the cd booklet. So at least we know the members are most likely alive and well. But it may remain a mystery how they arranged this whole reissue with the band. We know for sure that there will not be any new music releasing, but is it possible for another reissue soon or even decades later? Since they haven't signed themselves to the label, Deathpressive can't continue to make more copies. This "exclusive license" leaves us with the 500 cd and cassettes for who knows how long. It is possible for this to happen again in the future, but I wouldn't bet on it. For all we know, they could've forgotten about this project until they saw the email from Deathpressive. Whatever the case is, it's good to see the album get the spotlight it deserves somewhere at least oncemore.

Broken Torsos Singular Album

After all this talk about their only project, one may be curious on how the album actually is. To be very frank, it is nothing short of BDM perfection. They managed to fit a lot in the 27 minute runtime. Featuring the 7 tracks, Buried Alive, Tormented, Homicide, Thrill of Terror, Unforgotten Sins, Hour of Pain, and The Ultimate Abhorrence. It has all of the snarling aggression that you would want in any brutal death metal album. Absolutely disgusting riffs mixed with perfectly placed blast beats and fills. Hell, even the bass shines through on some parts, like the second and third passages of Tormented, my favorite track. The amazing vocals are similar to Lord Worms guttural approach on Cryptopsy. It has raw production reminiscent to that of old school death metal. But what makes this album really stick out to me is that touch of melodicism within the seething brutality. Melodic death metal is my favorite subgenre of metal, so this makes the project absolutely perfect for me. I think it also makes a good introductory album for those getting into Brutal Death Metal and find it somewhat hard to enjoy. It can please many metal fans of all kinds as the rhythmic and catchy riffs spare absolutely none of the brutality. So do yourself a favor and bless your ears for 27 minutes with pure death metal bliss as I await my cd reissue to finally arrive.

Merch advertisement on Deathpressive and Rotten Despire Musick Instagram page

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