Torche - Harmonicraft Review
Often labelled as stoner or sludge metal, they’ve toured with the likes of Mogwai, Isis, Pelican, Boris, High On Fire, Harvey Milk, Baroness and The Sword, to name just a few.
rating: 4
Now, when it comes to music, certain associations usually give a good indication of where a band are coming from, or what an album may sound like. For example the type of sound or genre an act is commonly labelled as, or a list of bands theyve toured with, or even the name behind the mixing desk producing an album. So, using these fairly reliable reference points, lets look at Torche, and this their third studio album; Harmonicraft. Often labelled as stoner or sludge metal, theyve toured with the likes of Mogwai, Isis, Pelican, Boris, High On Fire, Harvey Milk, Baroness and The Sword, to name just a few. Theyve released splits with Boris and Part Chimp, and this album has been produced by Kurt Ballou, you know, of Converge fame; possibly the most visceral, abrasive, challenging and influential hardcore band youll come across. With that information in place as a guideline of what to expect, you might imagine Torche as a band to be heavy to an obscene level; dirty, fuzzy, filthy, low ended, sludgey, droney and heavy. You might then expect the album to be a difficult, inaccessible beast. It would of course be perfectly understandable to come at this band and this their third album, with those expectations, however whilst all of the above does show you where theyre coming it doesnt tell you what they do. There is though, a little hint in the albums title Harmonicraft; the craft (or crafting) of harmony, a craft that is harmonious. Of course I just made up that definition and its clear why I dont contribute to any dictionaries, but its a fitting description, because whilst their influences, their kindred spirits and their backgrounds portray a heaviosity (I like making words up as much as the band does), they can write a catchy melody, and theyre not afraid to show it. Like Nirvana started out as a Melvins-lite, they liked it heavy but damn it, Kurt couldnt hide those pop sensibilities of his, Torche very much began a sludgey beast but the melodies kept coming out. This was truly displayed on their sublime sophomore effort Meanderthal, an album that was by no mistake heavy as hell but as equally as catchy. It got me and many others like me hooked, with the album seeing some real critical acclaim. Instead of stepping overground though, the band dug right back underground, continuing to release EPs and splits, but laying low.
Four years after Meanderthal comes the third full length, you may remember featuring in our albums to look out for list earlier this year. Given their shyness after that album and its acclaim, you may be forgiven for thinking they might have run in the opposite direction for this release, never ones to follow expectations, theyve taken that template and run with it. This album could only be described as sludge pop or stoner pop. Now, this isnt saying theyve lost the metal edge or the heaviness, no, what they have done though is really allowed the melodies and pop sensibilities to flourish. Letting Go suitably lets go of any of the usual conventions of sludge or stoner; it runs barely over two minutes, the production is polished to the point of shiny and everything sounds bright, harmonious, colourful even. This point is fully hammered home with the spectacular Kicking, which is an instantly enjoyable and accessible listen, the guitars hooks shining through and the vocals clear and sung brilliantly. Though lets not get ahead of ourselves everything is still so fuzzy and awash with distortion as it switches between stomps, grooves, riffs and soaring melodies its clear to see they still want to make the Earth shake. http://youtu.be/LayXKzbhtfQ Walk It Off shakes things up. Not even a minute and a half long, frantic as hell and an absolutely manic guitar solo, a real adrenaline shot of fuzzed out punk, which leaves you needing to walk it off afterwards. So its a good thing then that Reverse Inverted slows things down to a real head bobbing groove and some warped guitar lines straight out of the desert rock hand book. The first real lengthy track at 3 mins 51 with an outro that builds from a heavy jam into some brilliant harmonised guitar lines. Its not all blue skies and sunshine though, In Pieces shows they still know how to get down and dirty as it struts and grinds around in the mud at sunset bringing to mind the darker moments from Open Hands You And Me album. Even though theres a lot of pop in the mix theyre not a fraid to still mess around with structures and styles, Snakes Are Charmed being a fine example of this managing to fit in some fast paced hypnotic scuttling guitar, some big riffs, tempo changes, heavy groove switch ups and some pretty beautiful guitar melodies. Melodies, riffs and productions aside, one of the strongest aspects of this album is the ambition and the variety that is achieved. Managing to truly bring an equal mix of the heavy and the light, being able to slow things down to lumbering grooves and speed things up to near one minute lengths without the tracks seeming unnecessary. Mostly though theyve taken sludge, stoner and metal and made them easily penetrable and accessible for those unaccustomed to the genres, but retained the heart and soul of the genres so as not to alienate fans of those styles. As an album its lean too, no song over stays its welcome, it never gets indulgent or overbearing, at its heaviest it maintains paced energy and never meanders. Most of all though, it shows you can write pop songs that still have riffs that can move mountains. Torche FacebookTorch Official Site http://youtu.be/rGcHt0-rAME