Tourniquet is a Christian metal trio. In the CD inlay, the band
\nincludes this Bible quote, which I assume is where the band got its
\nname: Psalm 147:3: “He heals the broken hearted and binds up their
\nwounds. ‘He is our Tourniquet…'”<\/p>\n
The permanent members of this band are drummer\/rhythm guitarist
\nTed Kirkpatrick, vocalist Luke Easter, and bassist Steve Andino.
\nBut this release is clearly powered by Kirkpatrick; he has sole
\nwords and music credit on all but one track and on that track, “A
\nGhost at the Wheel,” he wrote the music while vocalist Easter wrote
\nthe words. This release features appearances by three guitarists
\nwho play all the solos. The majority of the solos are performed by
\nformer Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman. I recommend this CD to
\nfans of Friedman’s guitar playing.<\/p>\n
Starting out with the title track, it’s quickly evident that
\nFriedman isn’t going to be the one to make or break this record:
\nit’s going to be whether vocalist Luke Easter can sustain the
\npersonality he conveys through his vocal delivery. It’s wrong to
\nsay he sounds like Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, because he
\ndoesn’t really, but that’s the only name that kept popping in my
\nhead. I even put in
\nLights, Camera, Revolution<\/i> and sat there saying, “Easter
\ndoesn’t sound like Muir.” Yet, when I hear “Give Me Your Money” on
\nLights<\/i>, I hear Easter.<\/p>\n
The material here consists primarily of longer thrash metal
\nanthems, most in the six-to-nine-minute range. The band is driven
\nby the interesting drumming of Kirkpatrick whose clean drum tone
\nand slick snare fills are impressive. Bassist Andino locks in with
\nKirkpatrick, especially on track three, “Drawn and Quartered,”
\nwhich starts out with an intense snare drum work out for the first
\n50 seconds. Then the song shifts to a mid-tempo rock song with
\nthunderous tom fills. At the 1:40 mark, the song shifts again with
\ncrowd samples, then the song goes to double-time and thrashes out.
\nIt’s interesting that the band chose to put so many different ideas
\nwithin a single song. It seems like they should have played each
\nsection a bit longer to develop the theme more before shifting. By
\nthe time guitarist Friedman lets loose, though, the band has me
\nhooked.<\/p>\n
“A Ghost at the Wheel” sounds like something from the ’80s with
\nKirkpatrick soloing over a relatively simple riff. Then around the
\n:42 mark, the band shifts into a laid-back groove. This song sets
\nup my favorite track on this CD, the nearly seven-minute
\n“Architeuthis.” This song, like “Drawn and Quartered” sounds like
\ntwo songs smushed together. The first 1:42 and the thrash section
\nthat follows it don’t really fit together. It’s like they had two
\nideas, neither were developed extensively, but they liked both
\nsections so they put them together. I think it fits. It provides
\nthe most musical satisfaction on this release.<\/p>\n
Until you get to the lengthy “Healing Waters of the Tigris”
\nwhich tells the story about a civilization building a city by the
\nTigris river until “God’s judgment on that fateful day – a terrible
\nprice to pay\/ The greatest city of all – Ninevah – with towering
\ncity walls\/ The awesome power of the swollen river Tigris – caused
\nthat massive city to fall.” These lyrics lead up to a blistering
\nFriedman solo with Kirkpatrick and Andino locking in. Then
\nKirkpatrick takes a solo, with a lot of double bass and fancy
\nhi-hat work, leading up to a second Friedman solo. This song then
\ncalms down, a bit, around the 5:30 mark, and spaces out the guitar
\nnotes in what can’t be called a calm section, but definitely less
\nhectic than the previous few minutes. This groove continues for a
\nfew more minutes, allowing Friedman to stretch out even more than
\nprevious tracks. Kirkpatrick keeps his drumming interesting with
\nintricate tom-tom parts which eventually lead up to the original
\npattern returning. This song is an excellent example of what modern
\nthrash bands could be doing with their material. You can have a
\n9:32 thrash metal song and it can capture your attention for the
\nentire song.<\/p>\n
The CD ends with the slow, plodding “In Death We Rise.” It is
\nprobably my least favorite on the release. The CD booklet says
\nthere are lyrics, but after repeated listenings, I hear groanings,
\nnot words. The tempo is a snail’s pace and doesn’t fit with the
\nother exciting, faster material. I suppose it makes the band “more
\ndiverse” than a band that plays the same tempo for an hour. It just
\ndoesn’t seem to fit in the band’s musical vision for this CD.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, I like Tourniquet. I think Kirkpatrick is an
\nexcellent drummer, Easter’s vocals are good, even though he made me
\ndig out a ST release, and Andino sounds good as well. I think the
\nband would be a good addition to a mid-range arena tour. Musically,
\nthey can hold their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6286],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37629","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tourniquet","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37629"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37629"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}