Torque

This is the Vio-lence team minus Sean Killian, of course, and Rob Flynn, certainly, who was already up-and-running with his new cohort Machine Head by the time this collaboration was founded. Hats off to the guys for finding the strength and the inspiration to carry on without their emblematic colleagues, but trying to beat the Machines at their own game with the album reviewed here remains a debatable decision.

Vio-lence’s farewell opus “Nothing to Gain” was already a beyond-thrash affair, the band courteously flirting with the settling numetal trends, holding onto the frayed ends of the good old thrash, but betraying it with less decency in the underground sector… I’m talking about the “Torque” demo which came out shortly before said album, comprising three cuts which were more openly groovy post-thrashers that would have been more readily welcome if released officially in 1993, and if sung by a more belligerent shoutier throat than Killian.

The thing is that they weren’t; they saw the light of day in the company of eight more similarly-styled numbers some three years later, paying tribute to the powers of the day in a formulaic, not excessively exciting fashion. But the actual goodies first: the heavy intimidating stomper “Breed”, one from the demo, that could have made the final round from the audition for “Burn My Eyes”; and the rowdy on-the-verge-of-thrash “Nothing” which marches on in a less predictable semi-technical manner. The rest can’t come close to those two although “Dead You Lay” is a lively thrashcore roller-coaster with echoes of early Pro-Pain, presiding over the staple for the genre chuggy groovers like “Choking” and “Pulled”, the more dynamic expletives of “Will of Stone” failing to develop fully despite the noble intentions as the in-vogue at the time currents have the last say, including on the more individualistic finale “Hand over Fist”, a bouncy albeit overlong quasi-doomster.

The only truly violent moment here is certainly the cover, and partly Phil Demmel’s confrontational quarrelsome vocals. The rest is a more or less aptly disguised tribute to father groove, the band members trying to catch up with their comrade Flynn on the road to numetal success, and doing not much wrong if this was their one and only agenda. This is a competent done-by-the-90’s-book recording which doesn’t require loads of enthusiasm for its execution. It was obvious that, with or without Flynn, the band were going in this direction, and getting on the 90’s post-thrash freighter was inevitable under the circumstances, sooner rather than later in their case, giving their contribution to a vogue that was all the rage, not exactly violence, for a while.

A 3-song demo followed suit, the style pretty much the same, before the Torque idea was abandoned. However, it turned out that Demmel had more passion left for those aggro-sounds, and he appeared with a new outfit at the dawn of the new millennium, violating the phoenix-like rising old school canons with a faithful follow-up to the album here, only under the name Technocracy, and served with a harsher industrialized lustre. Nothing to lose your sleep over for sure, and not only because this stint was swiftly tucked away once the original Vio-lence members attempted a reunion around the same time. Nothing came out of this gathering, but at least Demmel’s dreams of groovy domination were put an end. He’s started jamming with the Vio-lence lads recently once again, and this time there’s got to be something to gain from it.

This is a good album by a good band that has that Pantera style groove/thrash that kicks your ass from start to finish. Also has a touch of progressiveness at certain points. Anyways, Mark Hernandez has great drum rhythms to complement Dean Dell's bass lines. Vegas and Demmel do a good job with the riffs, but Demmel is not much of a singer. Not saying that he’s bad just not much of a stand-out, they do fit the album well though. Overall these elements go well together, and if you are looking for Vio-lence type thrash, you have found it my friends.

The album opens up well with "H.L.S." This song has a really catchy intro with a crunchy guitar intro followed by the rest of the band. Then with "Again" the guitar starts of low then ascends into its regular volume. Around 1:33 a cool breakdown starts then followed by a solo. Soon "Nothing" comes around. This is a really good song that shows what Mark Hernandez can do. This song has more groove than thrash. "Shooter" starts with that slower "bang your fucking head" riff, much more groove than thrash, and replaces speed with heaviness. "Dead You Lay" is one of the stand-outs and is definitely thrash. It has a pretty good solo."Choking" is the track that I think they applied the "progressive" to. It starts with this weird but bad ass drum intro, I’m sure they used a drum machine. Overall a good track, and one I consider you listen to. "Forgotten" starts with an "in your face" riff that doesn’t stop. They did a great job with the vocals on this one; Dell adds small backing vocal fills that honestly I think make the song.

"Pulled" starts kind of slow. With drums and guitar in a low volume, then they reach their full volume capacity sort of unexpectedly. A good track and not complicated at all. "Will of Stone" brings back their thrashier sound. With great crowd-like backing vocals and Demmel's voice, this song makes a great combination of thrash and groove. Dell's bass isn't too audible in this one, but they make up for it. Another that I recommend you listen to. "Breed" starts with Dell's bass with sort of sounds like Vio-lence’s "Oppressing the Masses", but just for the intro. Also I'm not sure if it is just my copy, but the sound quality isn't as good as the rest. It is distorted and almost puts up a wall of sound that shouldn't be there. Again "Hand Over Fist" starts with Dell's bass intro, and also has low sound quality on my copy but even worse, you can't really here the bass except for in the intro, and the wall of sound is worse in this one.

For all those Vio-lence fans that need something similar to listen to (because I know Machine Head doesn’t do the trick), you are in luck. Torque isn’t exactly the same as Vio-lence, but it’s still worth the listen, because it is still great in its own right. And is much better than Machine Head