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this is the story of a band who would like to be giants, but if we were we'd be nice and try not to kill anything... no wait... we'd walk all over everything, everyone likes to be noticed and if a giant stomped your house you'd definitely notice.

This story starts in a place called Oldham, a lovely town... well lets not go that far, it's a place for the dispossessed, a hot bed of apathy. Oldham, the realm of the working class, a real place to come from and not return to. All members in The Tortured share a connection in a school with deeply set Christian values, which is still lost in the 1800s.

The Tortured began life a mere idea in the heads of founding members David and Derek, Max helped make this idea a reality. The first incarnations of the band included another, who is not with the band anymore, David Schofield on rhythm guitar. Vocalists were hard to come by with many leaving the band as they could not commit, leading to the interesting days of David doing both vocals and drums. Gareth being an old friend of Dave's, and best mates with both Dave and Derek became an option due to some drunken conversation and the overview of angst ridden poetry of yester year. This became set in stone, starting under the name The Wasted they set about writing their own songs. With the riff maestro Max on guitar forcing the music forward with his immense skill, and both Dave and Derek generating driving rhythm it was clear musically the then Wasted were already set and the musical style defined. Gareth on the other hand was flaky at best  and the vocals stunk. Perseverance led to some improvement and the band began to come together more, generating a closeness only a lifetime of friendship could create (this is owed partly to a very drunk time camping on a hill screaming at the people of Mossley).

Deciding The Wasted was too punk and the sound was too metal the name had to be changed, and so THE TORTURED became whole: name, members and sound. Another year of practice and some covers came into the fold, The Misfits: Halloween and Scream, and a cover of Monster Mash for an ill-fated Halloween gig. These were later dropped as too simplistic, they just served to piss off Max. More practice, more songs wrote, more songs dropped, the sound got tighter and finally The Tortured took to the live circuit on the 29th - January - 2004 playing a small venue in Oldham called The Castle, since then things have gone from good to great and we are now working on recording a professional demo.

Death Comes Ripping

After a while with the band max grew bored and left, enter 2 new guitarists Lee and Rick, practicing for a few months with the band, we were back gigging and having a good time. This didn't last, civil unrest grew within the ranks as the 2 guitarists grew bored of the pseudo-punk sound of the band. Voicing his wish to leave for a death metal project during a new years gathering of members Rick virtually spelt out the end for the band. Our second death came after an all ages gig at the roadhouse which was the most diabolical thing we have ever done... having not practiced for months, and due to the fact neither Lee or Rick bothered learning any of the songs properly we were left up shit creek... the performance was shite, the crowd were idiots, the bar wouldn't serve the band the necessary to numb our pain. The band went with a whimper not a bang, so here's a big fuck you to everyone who came to see us and hated it, a big fuck you to any other band in the scene who tried to take the piss, and a bigger fuck you to the band (including myself) for that horrendous gig at the roadhouse.

may this band rest in peace, resurrection would fix nothing

Yours sincerely,

                        Gareth Taylor (vocals)