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Tornts – Hells Burn

Announcing his return on his third album for the notorious Broken Tooth Entertainment label, Melbourne's original slang bomber Tornts invites us to “see what occurs when I merge with drums and that nuclear warhead perched on the top of my neck”. This is our re-introduction to Tornts' world, where Melbourne is Hells Burn and the thin layers of nicety and sunshine are peeled back to reveal a murky infrastructure.

Hells Burn is a 17 track epic ride through the bile and villainy of Melbourne's underside and Tornts' lyrical arsenal, with songs varying from imagery ridden tales to fast paced battle tracks and real street stories . His delivery on the mic is more intense and aggravated than ever, branding his masterpieces into every listener's mind, while his writing style has become even more refined. As with his previous work, Hells Burn is entirely produced by Tornts himself, a sonic armageddon of sounds smashed out on the MPC using twisted samples, drum machines, sound libraries, and evil keyboard sounds from the 1980s.

Debuting with the jagged Adding Insult to Injury in 2003 and following it up with the acclaimed Decimation Recordings in 2006, Tornts has firmly established himself as one of the greats of real hip hop in Australia, a skilled lone wolf amidst the crowds of weak, generic pop rhymers. Respected state to state with a hardcore fanbase built from doing shows with Lyrical Commission, Necro, Brad Strut, Bigfoot, Hospice Crew, Autism, Clandestien and the 750 Rebels, Tornts is as original and standout  a hip hop artist as Australia has yet produced.

Opener “Tornts Is Back” sums up his fire with lines like “I drink then I write like Charles Bukowski, the author / you're sorta mousey grovel like a porter”. Tornts' skill at evoking imagery is at its height on “Rank Tale”, a detailed reminisce of a self-imposed messy night from the perspective of the nauseous morning after. “Another Day, Another Night” is about what really goes down in the Burn at night: “Who said pigs can't fly / look at that chopper with the spotty / scoping fence hopping robbery” while “Final Warning” sees Tornts smashing out bars like “the world's bastard alks got me all blasted / stumbling in Tuned Air Max 2008 down Smith St./ iceheads are twisted Torvill and Deans with schemes up their sleeves”.  “Lost Highway” is a nocturnal driving nightmare set on a cold road to hell: “The median's a medium muttering / telling me the world and its people might never see me again”.

The churning uptempo “The Extermination” brings the rest of Tornts' Hired Goons crew to the mic to spit sickness – Billy Bunks, Gargoyle, Bigfoot and Fletchrock all do their worst.  Fellow Hired Goon Diem (formerly known as Rhys of the Hospice Crew) drops in on the schizo grime sounding  track  “Pay the Price”, The Goon's Brisbane blood brothers, 750 Rebels  (Lazy Grey, Ken Oath, Jake Biz, Overproof Pete) pipe up on the menacing “Flies On Ya Corpse” and Lyrical Commission's official legend Brad Strut is enlisted for “Keep Dreamin'”.

Accompanied by three street savvy videos directed by Heata (Bias B's “Move on the Pavement” and Bigfoot's “Footprints”),   Hells Burn reaches a new high for Tornts, who pushes his intense storytelling acumen and gritty imagery to a new level. When it's said and done, Tornts is one of the most skilled rhyme writers with a Molotov like delivery that commands his listeners' attention. His twisted daily reports are incomparable – unexpected verbal juxtapositions that paint the most sinister of visuals.

Welcome to Hells Burn.

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