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Torche
Meanderthal | Hydra Head
By
DANIEL BROCKMAN
|
April 8, 2008
TORCHE, MEANDERTHAL
" alt="photo of 'TORCHE, MEANDERTHAL'">
3.0
Stars
Since metal is a world created by male dorks, it has to be the most excessively sub-categorized genre of music ever. But there are really only two kinds of metal: the kind with comprehensible riffs (
e.g.
, Sabbath), and the kind with incomprehensible riffs that are just blurs (like, say, Dillinger Escape Plan). These days, anything in the first category tends to be labeled “stoner” — as Florida’s Torche often are — since comprehensibility is not usually considered a very “metal” thing. Fuck that. Here’s an odd adjective to describe the sound of the new Torche: “sunny.” Does it have brutal palm-muted frettage and brain-detonating drum barrages? Yes it does, among the stacked vocal harmonies, Wipers-esque psychedelia, and Jesus Lizardish bass lurches. Don’t let the dizzying flurry of Rush-meets-Lightning-Bolt album opener “Triumph of Venus” fool you into thinking that this is the work of wink-wink nudge-nudge metallers. Amid a sea of sword-wielding D&D ironists, Torche seem to be quietly resurrecting the earnest-minded heaviness of mid-’90s post-“grunge” — you know, bands with one-word names and blurry-photo album covers like Quicksand. If this all sounds conflicting and contradictory in theory, it isn’t in practice, and it’s all over way too quickly anyway.
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