Skip to content
Rigorous Institution: Tormentor 12” (Roachleg Records) Portland’s Rigorous Institution follows up their brilliant 2022 album Cainsmarsh with this new 12” on Roachleg Records. The band seems careful to bill Tormentor as a maxi-EP or a mini-album, which seems like an effort not to oversell it. While it clocks in at 25 minutes—longer than all but a small minority of hardcore full-lengths in today’s age—two of the tracks diverge from the band’s usual crusty hardcore: “P.B.T.D.,” which is a collage of solo electric guitar and nature sounds, and the eight-minute closing electro-acoustic instrumental piece “H.D.IV. - Laika’s Lament.” I’m sure some segment of Rigorous Institution’s audience won’t find those pieces interesting, but as someone who thinks their arty impulses are a big part of what makes them great, I’m here for the ride. Regarding those crusty hardcore tunes that makeup the bulk of Tormentor, all of Rigorous’s strengths are still here: the perfectly ominous synth tones that sound like they’re calling a band of medieval Scottish warriors to battle; the brutal-yet-subtle drumming, full of strange, Celtic Frost-esque rhythmic shifts; and of course the charismatic vocals and brilliant lyrics, which simultaneously feel like they’re set in another time and place and like they confront the problems of today’s world in a realer and more direct way than anyone else. While I miss the neanderthal riffing style that lent so much to Rigorous’s earlier releases, they couldn’t have taken the band some places it goes on Tormentor, particularly the track “Passion Play,” a four-minute epic built around a swinging, intensely Sabbath-ian riff. (Side note: these riffs have largely migrated to Gnostics, the new Richmond band featuring Rigorous’s original guitarist. Gnostics just released their demo tape on Roachleg, concurrently with Tormentor.) All this makes me wonder where Rigorous Institution might go in the future, and if churning stench/crust will play an ever-diminishing role in their sound. In the meantime, though, Tormentor provides a satisfying hit of the mystifying art-stench that only Rigorous Institution can create, while pointing the way toward even wider vistas.