We have a feeling that maybe 2019 is a year when UK bands will really stir up the world’s metal scene. Already there have been a handful of highly notable and thrilling releases to which you can now add the new Coup de Grâce EP from Devon hailing Torqued. Caged within its dramatic cover sits four tracks of voracious groove metal but tracks as progressively bold and atmospherically ravenous as they are compellingly infectious; all ready to prowl and devour the world.
Consisting of vocalist/bassist Marc Cleave, drummer Kurt Johnson, and guitarist Rimmy Sinclair, Postbridge’s 2016 formed Torqued has already lured strong attention and praise with early tracks and a debut EP, Resurgence, last year. Alongside, their live reputation has only escalated in line with the growth of their sound, the band making plaudit earning appearances at the likes of Bloodstock, The Mosh against Cancer, Amplified, and Rockfest amongst many more over time. Now, such its striking contents, expectations are easy that Coup de Grâce will only inflame both greater attention and acclaim
The EP opens with its title track, Coup de Grâce instantly teasing with a raw sonic lure before it becomes refined into a groove wound temptation within a suggestive electronically woven climate. Even as Cleave’s throat raw incursions emerge and the guitar brings greater threat to its wiring, that initial engaging temptation remains a potent presence. Increasingly predatory with every emerging twist, ravening groove, and rhythmic intrusion, every subsequent trespass echoed in vocal causticity, the track simply gripped and captivated.
The Revelation follows, arising from far off sonic mist in a web of interwoven melodic guitar threads and a rhythmic probing as rapacious as it is controlled. There is a Static-X hue to the track as it develops and blossoms, every breath and second bred in imagination and soaked in drama and though it does not have the same immediate punch and tempestuous impact, it hauntingly grew to eclipse its impressive predecessor.
Described as groove laden heavy metal, The Torqued sound readily embraces various hues, next up Open Wound evidence with its extreme tones and hostile textures coated in the rich allure of grooves and wired in melodic acidity. Further entangled in the dextrous craft of Sinclair’s enterprise the song prowls and preys on ears and senses, seducing both with its sonic intimation and imaginative within an unpredictable landscape before leaving The Darkest Of Shadows to close things up which it does with equally magnetic and enthralling adventure. In an electronically aided background bringing a host of dark and light suggestion, the guitar spins another sonic nexus as rhythms intrude and arouse with their own particular dexterity. Haunting atmospherics continue to as much tease as fear with their caliginous breath around the song’s full carnivorous trespass, it all going to make a song which is maybe not as easily devoured as its companions in some ways but emerges another major highlight from Torqued.
If the band does not quite launch itself on the broadest landscape of metal with Coup de Grâce it can surely only be a matter of time if we take the magnificent EP as the seeds to their future endeavours. No point waiting to see though, Coup de Grâce needs to be and should be your next port of call.
The Coup de Grâce is out now; available @ https://torqued.co.uk/shop/
https://torqued.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/Torquedband/ https://twitter.com/Torquedband
Pete RingMaster 16/04/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
The following groove metal swing of The Anger Inside is just as potently captivating, the track equally a bruising and harassing slab of nu meets death metal soaked rock ‘n’ roll easily and quickly getting under the skin. Apell and Saunders steer the track through ears with sheer power and riveting guile respectively with the sonic cunning and causticity of Falconer and Osbourne similarly stirring and imposing.
Drive follows and it too simply seizes ears from its first wiry throes before opening up its kaleidoscopic landscape, one tempestuous and as unsettled as it is creatively magnetic but a maelstrom of enterprise fluidly consuming and exciting ears. Classic hues join modern and progressive essences as the song blossoms by the twist and turn, Pickin’s vocals a strong and emotionally disturbed match for the cauldron of sounds around him. Both the opening pair of tracks has an inherent catchiness to them which is just as instinctive within next up Call Of The Judderman. Initially there is a common wiring between the third song and its predecessor, a core asylum of sonic endeavour but it soon unveils its own unique character and presence across three minutes of compelling confrontation.
It is a start which had attention and thought deeply enthralled, the body soon as tightly engaged as Switchblade Romance followed. With its initial wiry groove enough alone to entice further eager scrutiny, the guitars of Aaron Foy and Philip Smith entangled and enthralled with ease, the senses lashing swings of drummer Rob Hadley pining down an already keen appetite as the track rises to its striking feet. Like a blend of Fear Factory and Fuckshovel, the song quickly burrowed into the psyche, providing a lingering creative toxicity ensuring many swift returns even in the face of the inescapable lures of its successor Slaves To Causality. Less grievous in its breath but just as virulent in its grooving, the third track soon placed a firm hold on attentiveness, the tantalising voice and touch of Daniel Carter’s brooding but infectious bass to the fore. Again LC enticed as inescapably as the resourceful sounds around him, the track maybe not as unique as the previous pair but equally as magnetic.
It is a stirring rousing start easily backed by the sonic tapestry that is Akardos. Classic metal lined progressive wiring initiates the temptation, a great slim but rich prowling gait emerging before those early hues inflame the melodic enterprise of Schramm and lead guitarist Aaron Vogelsberg. Darker, heavier shadows soon infest the contagion, the esurient beats of Sam Baw uniting with the magnetic pulsation and lure of Jules RoCkwell’s bass. New threads of sound and styles continue to be keenly woven into the magnetic web before Dark Valley takes over the enslaving of ears and appetite. There is a bedlamic edge to Schramm’s vocals which quickly captured the imagination, one which only escalates across the song as musically too it nurtures an anarchic pandemonium within its skilfully bred infestation; the result which is maybe something akin to Dog Fashion Disco and Mudvayne meets The New Jacobin Club but is truly unique to Sober Truth.
Blood-Red Revolt brought even stronger enticement and incitement to body and pleasure, the track a definite favourite, writhing as it fingers the imagination with its boisterously manipulative and widely flavoursome antics before, following the brief chillingly haunting and increasingly threatening lead of …and Winter Comes, the predacious Inner Plague prowls and teasing the senses with its own venomous but darkly seductive threat. As ever the tenebrific yet tempting growl of Maks’ bass fuels the alluring menacing; constantly keeping the listener on their toes alongside the drums even as melodic flames and enterprise blazes away.
It is a thumping start to the album more than backed by the following Boogie Man, the track unleashing its groove from the first second and never relinquishing its lusty grip thereon in. From the earthy grumble of the bass to the voracious enterprise of the guitars, the song is a masterfully animated incitement; Minelli’s tones the ringleader to its anthemic prowess as it grabbed best track honours.