TORCHE (USA)
Australian Tour
October 2014
From their blistering melodies to their bulldozer guitar riffs, the Miami four-piece are one of the most innovative bands in metal today, eschewing the genres’s clichés and standards for an entrancing mix of melody, sludge and jubilant doom.
No one else sounds quite like Torche...
Formed after the demise of stoner metal band Floor, Torche’s influences come from far and wide. The usual suspects are there – Melvins, Helmet, Sabbath – but the subtleties of their sound come from all over the canon: Guided by Voices, Jawbox, Superchunk and even Cheap Trick, all of it punctuated by Steve Brooks’ bellowing roar. The result is a dense and distinct wall of noise, one that’s as heavy as it is irresistibly catchy. How many other bands can you say that about?
There should be more bands like Torche. – Pitchfork
Torche deal in anthems: every song brims with contagious hooks, rabid riffs and thunderous major-key progressions. Maybe that’s owing to the aesthetic of their beachside hometown – album number three, 2012’s Harmonicraft, was labelled “summer record of the year” by just about everyone who talked about it. But the quartet have no interest in wallowing. Every second of every song is an opportunity for high octane, unapologetic rocking-the-fuck-out.
Torche aren’t going nuts with the musical ideas anymore because they’ve hit on one that works. They’ve married their unstoppable riffage, which somehow sounds both thunderously elephantine and liquidly serpentine, to titanic yelling-at-the-cheap-seats
Better yet, Torche promise their fourth album – slated for later this year on their new label Relapse Records – is heavier than ever.
We can’t wait.
Catch Torche on the following dates:
Thursday October 16 – Crowbar, Brisbane - tickets from lifeisnoise.com, oztix and the venue
Friday October 17 – Rosemount Hotel, Perth - tickets from lifeisnoise.com, oztix and the venue
Saturday October 18 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne - tickets from lifeisnoise.com, oztix and the venue
Sunday October 19 - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney - tickets from lifeisnoise.com, moshtix, oztix and the venue