Well, well, well. Looks like Metal Blade finally got a kick butt Christian album to feed their spirit hungry listeners! That's right, Tourniquet is back and have finally come back ready to play some METAL!
With this return we get a CD that's over an hour in length, and filled with musical elements that plain and simple make me happy just listening to. I tried to describe this to a friend of mine and that's just the best thing I could come up with. This is music that just makes me happy. Not that it's "Happy Music" cause at times it's certainly anything BUT that. It's just that Tourniquet has taken many of the styles of yesterday and reformatted them to create original music that has all that "Old Metal" influence but when you listen to it you know you've got new fresh material.
The guitar work here ranges from thick crunchy pieces, to thrash, pulls off crazy leads all over the place, and (as expected) is ultra technical while doing it. The drums are...well Ted! Take a listen to Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance if you need a refresher course. He starts the album off with a barrage of cow bells that forces your attention, and on his journey through this CD comes up with lots of double bass, psychotic tom fills, and even places some blast beats in this one song that you didn't expect, but when it hits is just right!
Luke Easter's vocals range a good bit on this CD as well. He sings, shouts, screams, whatever it takes to put the right vocal lines with the particular part of the song he is on.
All I have is a pre-release of the album so I don't have any information on who is credited with what (I know Ted Kirkpatrick has been known to play some lead guitar in past Tourniquet albums) nor do I have a lyrics sheet. It doesn't matter too terribly much, this CD has been VERY Dominant in my CD player lately, so I've 95% of the lyrics figured out by now. Let me tell you one thing...this is as strong of a Christian album as ANY Tourniquet album has ever thought about being. There is this one song (again no insert so no song titles) that starts up talking about a Christian dealing with returning sins. As the song winds down it becomes a complete metal praise song with the following lyrics:
Seek not your life
From any other,
His power alone is sufficient for you
His love and His grace they will see you through
The poisonous well has been purified
The Scars on your heart have been sanctified
The Father of love has been glorified
When it seems life is a miserable place to be
Remember the words that He gave you and me
Believe in your heart and you will be set free!
There is POWER in this song. When you get (not if you get but WHEN you get) your copy of this album I urge you to pray and talk to God then listen to this song LOUD, and praise your heavenly Father. You will feel his presence, and you will know his loving embrace!
In other songs they defend Christian metal, take the subject of accountability in a society that is eager to place your blame somewhere else, chronic anger/hatred, the frailty of human "intelligence," and above all praising God.
Being true to Tourniquet there are some quirky parts such as the whistling piece. This annoyed me at first but now I find I just whistle right along with them. Then you have to respect a band that incorporates a line from Alice in Wonderland in their song. Right in the middle of a verse they bust out with "The time has come to speak of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings" which comes from the story of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" in Alice in Wonderland...pretty darn cool guys. The only reason this album didn't get a 10 from me is because of one other of their little quirky parts. This one song has this electronic toy that speaks spanish. Twice in the middle of a killer riff they stop the music COMPLETELY to let this toy say its line. Honestly, it's stupid, and it ruins the song. I've listened to it so many times, and each time it's a sore spot.
That is the ONLY flaw I've found, and it's hardly worth mentioning really. Could have been left out but they did it, they liked it, and I still say BUY THIS ALBUM!
9.5/10
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Scotty TeemsWhen was the last time you were bludgeoned by music? That seems to be one of the very few phrases I can find to accurately describe the sheer volume and mass of Tourniquet's latest disc, Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm. This collection of eleven bruising and brooding numbers takes the speed metal Tourniquet fans are so familiar with and, well, leaves it alone. How refreshing it is to hear…7ball #31Reviewed by David MuttilloEarly in Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm, Tourniquet quotes Bach's humble description of his great music: "They're simply notes put together in bars." Much like that great classical composer of old, the sum of this trio's output is much greater than just so many creatively arranged notes from a scale. It's easy to fall for such an assumption, though, since nobody can cram as many notes…HM Magazine #82Reviewed by Doug Van PeltOh yeah! The intro to this album ("Besprinkled in Scarlet Horror") ends all the speculation -- Tourniquet is not experimenting with a new sound anymore . . . they're blowing your head off with blazing heavy metal. Fans of Tourniquet's first three albums will feel like they're getting the follow-up to Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance with its biting and rising guitar scales. There's a harpsichord…Art for the Ears 2000Reviewed by Marco PovervestWhen you start this disc you might think you're listening to a funeral service. You hear a slowly murmuring church organ. But then, after ten seconds, this is brutally interrupted by an aggressive outburst of Tourniquet. And on this new album Tourniquet stands for Metal with the capital M as they go back to the sounds and ideas as captured on the Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance album. Not only…The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Tony LaFianzaWith Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm, Tourniquet is back on several levels. They're back to speed metal, back to electric guitars, back to horrific CD covers, back to everything that fans have loved about the band for ten years. They've also come back on a secular label, Metal Blade, which has been releasing Christian favorites King's X and Galactic Cowboys for many years. Ted Kirkpatrick…The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Josh SpencerTourniquet has finally returned to the progressive speed/thrash metal form fans have wished for ever since the band left it in 1993 after Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. The dozens of buzzing and clean guitar tones, time and tempo changes, sick leads, mad drumming, and added flute and cello are all back with whirlwind vengeance. It's not the brute force assault of most extreme metal, but rather, a…Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by NecRoSarXOkay, I'll be blunt. I had rather conflicting feelings when this album came out. Sure, I heard all the hype that the quasi-legendary Tourniquet had gone back to their blistering brand of progressive thrash metal on Microscopic View.... The fact that it was released on Metal Blade, a label that features mainly mainstream (for lack of a better word) metal bands and artists on their roster, was a…Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by GrindboyAh, this is a difficult album for me to review. . . . A large portion of this cd is very much Pathogenic. . . flashback type stuff (although hints of both Vanishing. . . and Crawl. . . are also interwoven), but even back in '92, I listened to my Tourniquet with ever a finger poised by the skip button, just in case a horribly hard-rockin' song could be impending. . . and one always would be. So…Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by SORGA project this big and complex takes almost as much time to review as it probably did to record! Well, not really but you know. It is albums like this that make me wish I knew how to read music and had gone to schooling for music theory and such. I REALLY did not think I would like this cd very much at all as I have not really liked anything Tourniquet has done since Vanishing Lessons, so all the…Similar sounding releases
2001Stretch Arm StrongA Revolution Transmission
2003Better Off DeadThe Days of Friendship
2001AmosGothic Soul
1993Jesus FreaksSocially Unacceptable
2003MortificationPower, Pain & Passion
1991The CrucifiedPillars of HumanityMore from Tourniquet
1990Stop the Bleeding
1993Intense Live Series, Vol. 2
1995Pushin' Broom (Video)
1992Video Biopsy (Video)
1998Acoustic Archives
1992Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance
