Torn in Two is from La Habra, CA. They bring metal to the Facedown roster.
Wow. This is some serious stuff. Torn in Two play what I unofficially call New Wave Metal. It's metal, but new. There are two vocalists, the sum total of which equals a great package deal you can't help but enjoy (one of the vocalists reminds me of Vengeance Rising vocalist, Roger Martinez). The music isn't stagnant but goes in all sorts of directions, such as the adding of bongo drums to "Untitled (For The Voiceless)" or the piano and acoustic guitar sounds found here and there throughout the whole album.
The standard complaint these days is that there is a glut of metal-core bands and that they all want to be Zao. Well, Torn in Two defies that outlook and my guess is that they will continue to do so. They take a sound, metal, and make it their own. Songs like "Remnants of a Friend" features soft angelic like female solos which are surrounded by heavy skull crushing metal with interludes of acoustic guitar. Speaking of acoustic guitar...someone in the band is really good. "Soli Deo Gloria" is just a classical guitar number that leaves you just as amazed as the rest of the songs. "As the Stone Falls Down" sounds like it has some sort of backwards masking going on.
My whole point is that Torn in Two isn't just another metal band, but has left a unique thumb print all over the album. The recording was a little bit shaky, but it works. This is good stuff, and I can't wait to see where they go from here. This album is going to please everyone from the old-head metal fans of yesteryear, to the new metal-core fans of today. Look for an interview with the band in the newest issue of The Crucial Times.
B+
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #95Reviewed by John SantA car cuts me off and forces me to slam on my brakes, but I don't notice. Hands and feet are a blur, playing along to the first track on Torn In Two's debut album, Soli Deo Gloria. As far as openers go, this album has more than a solid one. Calling to mind the epic heaviness and stop/start lurching of Meshuggah, Up until this point, they've got themselves a new fan. I change freeways. The next…Similar sounding releases
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