With 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 is one of the world's best drummers, and on this record he has come alive and let loose, to awesome pounding results. Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm features some of the most manic guitar and drum work ever put down on a Tourniquet CD. Guitarist Aaron Guerra can play any style, and this being a Tourniquet record, he does. Guerra goes from shredding electric steel strings to caressing nylon strings in a classical style, sometimes all in the same song. A case in point being the first cut on the record, "Besprinkled in Scarlet Horror," where the music passes through several movements including the opening strains of a Bach-like fugue, into a metal monster, ending with a praise song complete with lilting flute. The song lyrics cover a lot of ground too. Kirkpatrick responds to the band's critics who say that Tourniquet music is not sacred, but evokes demons, and that the past album covers are violent and gross. "Besprinkled . . ." fades out with a soft praise tune, a music style the band's critics would embrace, yet the song, still referencing the complaint of gross album covers and lyrics, goes:
If you arrived at the site
Of Calvary's scarlet fright,
Would fears have made your feet take flight
And turn away from our Lord's plight?
Speaking of album covers, this one is scary. A large green toothy demon holds the earth in one gnarled hand and the other dark green hand is imprinted with a bar code. In the foreground there is a magnifying glass enlarging a lovely green and black butterfly about to be sucked into a swirling downward vortex. The liner notes go into detail explaining the cover is a picture of ourselves when we can't focus past our own little microscopic, selfish worldview. The only way to reveal and change the monster we become is to see that there is a big, lost, hurting world. To look out and realize that there is a telescopic realm out there, "ready to give our life a deeper meaning..." The explanation goes a long way towards making these visual grotesqueries palatable.
Singer/screamer Luke Easter has been with Tourniquet for about half of their time as a band, and I'm of the camp that likes his vocals. He reaches into many styles and does each well with style and grit. A good example is cut two, "Drinking from the Poisoned Well." On this song he growls, sneers and screams, bringing alive the deep feelings that a song needs as it deals with how anger hurts and poisons the one angry more than the one who hurt them. Easter also has wonderful diction throughout the album. Whether he's singing, screaming, or yelling/rapping, I can hear every word. With some lame metal records I've heard, being able to understand the words may be a problem, but not with Tourniquet. The thoughts are important and I want to hear every verse.
This tenth Tourniquet record is almost 70 minutes of high points. Tourniquet mixes classical influences with their great metal senses, bringing the listener along for the exciting, provocative ride. The music rocks and the lyrics are deep and thoughtful. Tourniquet has not pulled any punches for their new mainstream label, or any of their aforementioned critics. The band attacks topics like creation, getting right with God before death, how some people manipulate others with their sad life instead of moving on and getting through it. Other topics are the struggle of the Christian life, and how God's grace is sufficient, repentance, or the lack thereof, betrayal, and victory in Christ. Strong and deep subjects, all dealt with from a strong and deep Christian perspective. The last lyric of the record is:
We call him Jehovah who's always near
And you can win the battle when you pray without fear
The weak are victorious when the strong reaches down
And the ones who bring sadness will bow to the Crown
The trio of Kirkpatrick, Guerra and Easter have delivered one of their best efforts ever to Metal Blade records. Will the record sell? Will the band get the backing from the label that they deserve? Will you look at the world through a microscope or a telescope? Who knows. I'm only here to tell you, the music fans interested in this genre of metal that the new Tourniquet record shreds!
4.5 tocks
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 break…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 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…Similar sounding releases
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