Where Moth And Rust Destroy

Has anyone ever heard of the band Tourniquet? To be honest, I've never had until now. The fact is that this Christian progressive power thrash metal trio from Los Angeles, CA. has been around since 1990. They have released six full length albums, two EP's, one acoustic album, one "Best of" album, and six videos. Tourniquet is defined in the dictionary as "a surgical device for arresting hemorrhage by compression of a blood vessel". Tourniquet takes that definition and re-apply it to their own terms to mean "a lifelong spiritual process by which a personal God, through the atoning blood, death, and resurrection of His only Son -Jesus Christ- can begin to stop the flow of going through life without knowing and serving our Creator. HE IS OUR TOURNIQUET". Tourniquet has been labeled Christian metal because they are committed to communicating the message of the Gospel through music. Their lyrical content has included Old Testatment narratives and medical allegories to Edgar Allan Poe type descriptive horror. Tourniquet has also addressed some important, unique and often controversial social issues in their lyrics such as animal rights. Musically, Tourniquet's style is a mix of hardcore, hard rock, technical metal, speed metal, alternative and groove. They are able to blend all of these elements with melody and originality. Tourniquet even incorporates classical music into many of their guitar riffs. Bands that I hear in Tourniquet's music at times are Metallica, Anthrax, Gothic Slam, Hades, Whiplash, Watchtower and Shadows Fall. The band consists of Ted Kirkpatrick (drums), Luke Easter (vocals) and Steve Andino (bass). For their 11th album, "Where Moth And Rust Destroy", Ted Kirkpatrick wrote all of the music, with Easter contributing lyrics on a few tracks. Kirkpatrick also played all of the rhythm guitar parts. Tourniquet even had Marty Friedman (Megadeth, Cacophony) and Bruce Franklin (Trouble, Supershine) provide all of the killer guitar solos. The album was produced by veteran Bill Metoyer and Kirkpatrick. Most of the songs on "Where Moth And Rust Destroy" can be classified as mini epics, averaging seven minutes in length.. They are filled with exciting twists and breaks, containing a lot of variation ranging from fast thrash metal, mid-paced melodic sections to acoustic parts. Even a violin has been added to enhance the atmosphere. But believe me when I tell you that the songs are in no terms boring musically or lyrically. The musicianship is tight and the production is crystal clear. Kirkpatrick is an awesome drummer. I haven't heard drumming this technical since Rush, Slayer or Watchtower. It's hard to believe that Easter does all of the vocals because he can sound like three different people. From soft singing and mid range vocals to hardcore like shouts. To give you a little taste of what one can expect from this album, I will briefly describe some of the tracks: "In Death We Rise" is very doomy in style and can pass for something that either Candlemass or Black Sabbath would have written; an unusual but successful side of the band. A song like "Drawn And Quartered" has masterful violin and guitar theme harmonies supported by driving drum patterns. The influences of Bach’s fugues and the Beethoven’s symphonies are touched upon here. "Ghost In The Wheel" is more groove oriented. The song reminds me a little of Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" the way the riffs are played. "Healing Waters Of The Tigris" is very Mid-Eastern influenced with hypnotic instrumental passages and killer guitar riffs. "Architheuthis" has those Anthrax like shouts remeniscent of "Among The Living" era. I hope the band can pull off these songs in the live setting, being that they are looking for a full time guitarist. His style has to be similar to Kirkpatricks in order to pull of these songs. The more I listen to this album the more I realize just how good it is. Definitely worth picking up!