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
Since your early days, how would you say your sound has evolved?
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.
Mother Nature Is a Serial Killer followed with a gentle coaxing of the senses, the melodic beckoning of guitar a quickly captivating intimation within which a surge of riffs brews, coming closer by the half breath before leading in another entangled incitement of texture, sound, and discontent; the latter a fire of vocal enmity. Of course as the song evolves cleaner and harsher elements become involved as that unpredictability already invigorating the first pair infests song and imagination to magnetic effect; it’s still discontent soaked calms as poignant and striking as its hostile ravishes of ears. Obzerv’s sound is wonderfully hard to pin down in a few words and the multi-flavoured roar of this song just epitomises that inescapable lure.
The first of two EPs which together unveil an elaborate story with themes looking at “dystopia, a dictatorship, and the use of technology for a chance at a better world…but at what cost?” the swiftly fascinating Lucian opens up with the single Silence the Crows. Immediately a guitar cast wire entangles ears, winding around their flesh with intimation and dexterity as rhythms gather their bait and in turn the quickly captivating vocal blend of guitarist Rhys Evans and the supporting tones of bassist Sam Green and drummer Max Hill steps forward. There is a flirtatious touch and lure to the song from its first breath but equally a snarl in its melodic almost deceitful smile, an edge which is as much threat as it is sonic enterprise as Evans guitar reveals greater flavouring and invention by the passage.
It is a thickly seductive and threateningly magnetic start to the album quickly matched in power and invention by Fodder for the Meat Grinder. A far more energetic proposition as grooves link up with spirited boisterousness, the song still openly shares a matching enterprise and imagination to its predecessor. The agility of Castelain’s beats collude eagerly with the brooding throat of Whitfield’s bass as all the while infectious grooves entangle the thrust of hungry riffs, the only thing restraining their voracity being the melodic passages and calms which also only add to the highly infectious song’s impressive landscape.