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In-Store Session: Doom without gloom

Torche - Meanderthal
Posted by Laila Hanson on 07-Jul-08 @ 01:30 PM

[3.5/5] Meanderthal sounds pretty ominous, its riffs resonating with a thud. But while Torche stomp through tar pits, their tunes don't get stuck in the mire. Steve Brooks' voice slices through the sludge, as do the ringing guitar countermelodies. But though Brooks' clarity recalls Helmet's Page Hamilton, cleanness seemed natural for that group, given the antiseptic surgical precision of their song structures. Torche's baleful tones demand an anguished wailer: When Brooks answers that call, it's thrillingly incongruous. Torche don't let their grooves become stagnant, aborting several songs before the two-minute mark. Because of their slow-flowing surroundings, the record's upbeat cuts seem much faster than they are, an illusion that dates back to Black Sabbath's Paranoid. Meanderthal pivots during the late-album track "Fat Waves," which starts as a bouncy number reminiscent of Queens Of The Stone Age's "Go With The Flow" before the hooks vanish underneath a percussive stampede. The final two tracks ("Amnesian," the title track) plod and drone in epic fashion, culminating in the portentous detonation of Brooks' detuned "bomb strings." The record's sequencing suggests even the most positive-thinking heavy group can only forestall grim reality for so long. (HYDRA HEAD) Andrew Miller ROCKS LIKE Floor's Floor Quicksand's Slip Black Sabbath's Sabotage IN-STORE SESSION WITH VOCALIST/GUITARIST STEVE BROOKS In your previous band, Floor, your vocals could be pretty harsh. In Torche, they're clean and melodic. What inspired you to change your singing style? I did all that yelling stuff, and it didn't work for me. I was screaming because I didn't have enough confidence to try to sing. The bands that got me playing music, like Van Halen, they didn't scream. When I hear a decent band and then the vocalist will come in and start screaming, it just turns me off, in all honesty. I don't particularly like singing, but nobody else is gonna do it. Six songs on Meanderthal clock in at 130 seconds or less. Groups in the sludge-rock genre usually like to experiment with repetitive droning grooves--why all the short songs? That's punk rock. We have short attention spans, and we get bored really easily, so when we think the songs are done, they're done. They get to the point, and then that's it. Torche take an unconventional route to extreme heaviness. In musical terms, what defines "heavy" for you? Heavy is all over the map. The heaviest stuff I've ever heard is, like, Bauhaus and Swans. I think a lot of metal music isn't heavy at all. It sounds like little, tiny, clicky machines. And then there are bands like Magnetic Fields, where their lyrics are just heavy. He says things I only wish I could say. I don't necessarily try to be heavy; we just like the guitars to be sonic, and it comes out that way. While your delivery is quite tuneful, it can be difficult to decipher the words, and you don't include lyric sheets with your albums. Can listeners assume that the tone of the lyrics matches the mood of the music? I don't have anything to say to anybody that I need to put in a song. I'm a guitar player. I use vocals more as an instrument rather than having to tell a story or anything. As far as the mood of the songs, I want our stuff to be optimistic and uplifting. I grew up listening to depressing music, and that's not me anymore. When I play a show or go to a show, I want it to be a fun experience, where there's a lot of energy and everybody's getting along with each other. I've had enough gloom in my life, and I don't want to think about it anymore. I just want to enjoy life and enjoy the music I'm playing. --Andrew Miller Official Website: http://www.hydrahead.com