My first exposure to Torche came in October 2010 when they, along with the sorely missed Kylesa supported heavy metal leviathans High on Fire. The Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, having notoriously muddled acoustics in those days, did High on Fire’s everything louder than everything else set no favors that night. What set Torche apart that night, besides the clarity of a more favorable mix, was their ability to add pop sensibility to their uncompromisingly heavy sludge.
‘Admission’s’ lead-off track “From Here,” which serves as an excellent exposition of the Torche sound, is a compact, uptempo sludge fest that’s over before you know it. What stands out, in addition to Torche’s mastery of the almighty riff, is the atmospheric synth-like guitars that penetrate even the record’s heaviest of tracks, and go a long way to adding to the overall melodic push and pull of record’s unique character.
“From Here” segues into the aptly monikered grind of “Submission.” With signature mammoth-sized start and stop riffs and subtle melodies, the song kicks off a string of tunes that expertly encapsulate the core of the Torche sound while throwing enough curveballs to keep things interesting.
The meat and potatoes of what would be Side A of the vinyl or cassette run from the snaky call and response riff of “Slide,” a rocker that highlights the band’s more melodic side, to the frantic charge of “What Was.” The dulcet tones of the unhurried 4/4 chug and sonorous guitar textures of “Times Missing” make for an excellent build-up to the melodic sheen of the title track.
“Admission,” the best song on here, harkens back to some of the poppier moments of 2012’s ‘Harmonicraft,’ a record whose unicorns and rainbows cover joins Deafheaven’s ‘Sunbather’ as the ultimate fuck you to tough-guy metal posturing. With a sound that wouldn’t be out of place tucked between The Catherine Wheel and The Pixies on MTV’s 120 Minutes, it harkens back to early 1990’s alternative rock in the best way possible. The delicate and shimmering lead-guitar textures serving as an effective frame for guitarist/vocalist Steve Brooks’ confessional lyrics and melodic vocals. The track, which might be the tightest most concise song the band has ever written, benefits from the up-front vocal mix that helps set this record apart from its predecessors. Discussing the rare decision to print lyrics on the record’s sleeve, guitarist/producer Jon Nuñez cited the personal, bare-all nature of vocalist/guitarist Brooks’ lyrics this time around.
‘Admission’ effectively marks the climax of a record that plays out like a sort of the musical equivalent of the 5 traditional literary elements of a plot conflict–exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
The falling action of the second half of the record, while no less engaging, meanders a bit, as the band, which is rounded out by bassist Eric Hernandez, and suitably named drummer Rock Smith, flex their creative muscles.
“Reminders” marries choppy headlong riffs with Beatles-esque melodies before devolving into a haze of tidy static. Straight ahead sludge rocker “Extremes of Consciousness” paves the way into the doom-laden guitar-mimicking vocals (or is those vocal-mimicking guitars) of “On the Wire” before the bottom-heavy stutter of “Inferno” simultaneously evokes Hell and the “brown note.”
The sliding and phased guitar melodies of “Changes Come,” a song that falls somewhere in the vicinity of the title track soundwise, serves as a hopeful if a bittersweet resolution to a well-crafted and extremely accessible and listenable record. When Brooks provides emotional closure via the cathartic lines “last chance to say goodbye and we know it’s not for long,” one hopes that this mantra also applies to the wait between this and the next Torche record.
‘Admission’, Torche’s best record since 2008’s ‘Meanderthal,’ finds the Floridian band confidently embracing all aspects of their genre-defying sound.