THRONE TORCHER - The Mechanics Of A Nightmare
July 17, 2020, 4 years ago
(Independent)
I love how this one gets started, Winnipeg’s Throne Torcher racing out of things with a crazed, early metalcore/noisecore onslaught before we’re even one second into first tune “Terrible Complexity,” the band then dropping things down to a simple punk rage before reminding us that raw hot takes on Deadguy still sound great in 2020. Man, good way to get things rolling, the song covering a lot of ground in 3:40, going to Hydra Head Records levels of experimental sludge before it’s done and done, with just a hint of melody tossed in. And that’s just the first song: elsewhere, the machine grinds and clogs and gets grimy, but it’s all punk at the end of the day, end result being a more punk Circle Of Dead Children or a more straight-faced and grinding The Locust.
In other words, end result is energy through the roof, songs like “Cadaver Dogs” laying down deceptively melodic-DM riffing through the early-‘00s Relapse framework of nasty, punked-up grindcore and twisted near-noise-rock song structures. The title track ends off this album on an epic, post-metal note, the band channelling ISIS but doing it in a mere 4:21, this whole record being over before you know it, which is fantastic, Throne Torcher leaving us wanting more, giving so much with so little.
