| Reviews for Torche's Torche |
| Platitudinous - 1% |
| Written by zeingard
on November 3rd, 2009
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| Normally I'm not one to subscribe to the idea that a short album or an EP should be subjected to any less analysis than a LP; just because there's less time occupied by music does not mean you cannot dredge up a sufficient amount of content or description. Case and point being Thou's 'Malfeasance'. However we're not talking about that phenomenal EP (unfortunately), but instead about Torche's self-titled debut for which I'm going to break the rules and give a short review because it's wretchedly boring. While Torche are renowned for being little more than a heavy pop band now, with this particular release they attempted to play doom/stoner metal as though they had no previous knowledge of the genres other than being told that the music is slow and has down-tuned guitars. The result is one of those awfully bland albums; the kind you listen to attentively for the first two songs before getting distracted by Wikipedia articles on subjects like pareidolia or mondegreens. Half an hour later you realise that the album is almost finished and you haven't the faintest idea of what the music sounds like. I wish it was just hyperbole but any more detail about the band's music would be unnecessary and exceedingly pointless. Even when I forced myself to sit on the other side of the room and listen to it, everything else in the room seemed infinitely more interesting, such as the fact there are 27 hooks on the walls. But in the name of defending my credibility I should point out some moments, such as the cringe-inducingly awkward time signatures of "Holy Roar" or the awful chorus in "Fire" that drops the distortion, allowing for the listener to notice how mediocre the vocals are, much in the way that "Cold" did so for Tomas Lindberg. "Fuck Addict" combines a puerile song title with failed attempts at contrasting minimalist riffing with bursts of spazzy noise rock, while "The Last Word" is just a really long version of the other songs but four times as boring. I'd recommend avoiding this album but it's so ineffectual and bland that even if you end up disliking it you probably won't remember it; I know I sure don't. |
| Well this was better than I was expecting.. - 25% |
| Written by The_Boss
on March 2nd, 2009
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| I wasn't quite sure what to make of this, the style that Florida band Torche is stoner/sludge and is quickly becoming one of the more popular front runners of the subgenre. I'll just go ahead flat out and say I'm not really a big fan of this style, typically it's too slow, simple and flat out boring for my liking; I guess my overwhelming love of thrash kills it's chances but I still like to give it a fair shot. Considering most bands take huge influences from the forefathers of metal, Black Sabbath, I always give it a fair chance. Torche's self-titled debut album is a really short album with 11 songs of sludgy, slow paced mid-tempo drag alongs and stonerisms. Apparently Torche gets a lot of slack and praise at the same time for having some sort of pop influence or whatever, I'm not quite sure I hear this apparent sound but I would assume it comes in through the "catchy" vocal lines. "Catchy" is a varying term, vocals here are just some simple crooning for the most part, although when the album opened with Charge of the Brown Recluse I got excited, a Sabbath-like intro straight into Ozzy styled vocals, ending up being a solid song. Safe continued the trend by being one of the faster paced songs that had a little more punch with solid drumming and the thick sludgy guitar riffs. The style continues and somewhat stops when we get into the fourth song Erase, where it still keeps the prominent sludge but at the same time brings in weird melodic style leads and adds an odd but somewhat soothing atmosphere, becoming the best track on the album and something I'd actually consider "good"! Things get weird now, going all fucking gay shoegaze-y or whatever the hell this is classified as with Fuck Addict, one of the longer songs on the album at 3 and a half minutes, but the song simply is full of weird attempts to add atmosphere, but instead is just playing fucking boring. This is what I don't get, this isn't sludge/doom, this is something else, the song seems to kick up into a nice beat with 1 minute left and then just... stops. The album has plenty of attempts at adding atmosphere but just doesn't really fit it seems, where they attempt to vary themselves with loads of sludgy riffs and powerful bass, but instead then just stop and become all spacey. There are some solid songs on here, like the Sabbath-y opener, or the upbeat sludge attack of Rockit, or even the somewhat soothing Erase. The rest of these songs are simply 1-2 minute filler that is completely forgettable, I really can't find anything memorable, catchy or fun about this. Torche's attempt to making an epic 9 minute long album highlight was a mistake it seems; The Last Word is really boring, just meandering along with nothing worthy of recognition, this is a totally skip worthy. Torche attempts to write a stoner styled sludge metal album, adding in some other influences but this is just messy. There's too many ideas here, with loads of other boring attempts into the fold. Within the 30 minutes found here, there's about 8 memorable and passable minutes that are barely decent. I suppose you have to be in a certain mood to appreciate this but this is just plain boring at times. Torche's debut is just here, the music to be found is mildly interesting at the time, but for the most part it's just boring and not memorable; especially for a band that has gotten some recognition for having "pop" influence, I have no clue as to what the hell they mean. |
| Blink 180 Doom - 60% |
| Written by DeadAlive
on September 4th, 2007
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| My view of this album is that it is what it would sound like if Blink 182 took a liking to Sludge/Doom metal one day. The guitars and bass are really heavy, but not dark like much sludge. The spry, upbeat drumbeats and relatively fast riffing make for music that comes across as feel good metal. Additionally, the vocals are sort of singing to a tune of its own and the lyrics are rather simplistic. The vocalist always seem rather upbeat and sound like Blink 182 in a sense, just maybe a little slower. Another thing is they will add guitar intros that sound like something straight pout of a Good Charlotte album. The type of stuff with the really high and repetitive plucking. Overall, Sludge pop is a fair term for this style of music. Although- I do think Torche have since then changed. I saw them at a show, liked what I heard and got this CD. Their newer stuff sounds heavier and less blink 182ish. |
| An excellent debut - 85% |
| Written by BlaiseBaileyFinnegan
on November 7th, 2006
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| It is pretty easy to determine what a band (especially a metal band) will sound like based on the cover art of their album. For example, an unreadable logo, some inverted crosses, and a corpse-painted man screaming at a candle means you're in store for some raw black metal. Likewise, an unreadable logo and something dead being eviscerated, raped, or otherwise defiled prepares you for an album of fast and heavy death metal. So what does a volcano erupting all over a rainbow and some flowers mean? Pretty much exactly what you think. Alternatively, you can think of a bulldozer tearing down a puppy factory, or cyanide lollypops. Intrigued? Confused? Read on. Torche can best be described as "sludge-pop", which may seem to be a complete paradox, but it really is true: they play bass-heavy sludge metal combined with pop hooks. And it works. Torche somehow seamlessly combine speaker-rattling heavy riffing with melodic vocals and catchy choruses. Don't be surprised if you walk away singing tracks like "Vampyro" or "Fire" to yourself for the next week. But don't let all this talk of "melody" and "catchiness" scare you away. Right from the opening track, "Charge of the Brown Recluse", the band make it clear that they are undeniably a sludge band (the 9+ minute closer "The Last Word" cements this reputation), with appropriately muddy, grungy (but by no means poor) production values. Save for the vocals, of course, which are clear and very well performed, and contrast brilliantly with the rest of the band. Ultimately, Torche have written a unique and enthralling debut. The songs may be a little lacking in variety, and some may complain at the relatively short length of the album (just shy of half an hour), but this CD is definitely worth your time and money. Yes, sludge-pop. Trust me, it works. |