Torche - Meanderthal

Torche. Meanderthal. Hydrahead Records. 2008. 4 stars.

I’ve seen Torche perform twice before, opening for Mogwai and Jesu, and I while I was impressed by their crushingly loud sets, they just seemed like a slightly above average doom band.  To my pleasent suprise, their latest LP Meanderthal lives up to the internet hype with its brisk and infectious stoner metal jams. Sounding like a cross between Queens of the Stone Age and Pelican, Torche’s songs are full of tight melodies and furious riffs, moving along at a speedy pace while still laying down the heaviness. The majority of the tracks here are short and sweet, with only one song pushing past five minutes, making Meanderthal a breezy and accessible listen that begs repeating.

While Torche successfully culminate several styles together in a satisfying package, there is no ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’ to knock it out of the park. Still, that may not be a bad thing, since Torche will fair well with the avant-stoner crowd (fans of Boris and Isis take note). Torche may sound like a band teetering on the fence between arena-rock stardom and the underground, but they’re still carving a sizable niche for themselves with their ‘fun’ brand of doom metal. If Meanderthal is any indication, I’m expecting many more great things to come from this band.

Torche “Healer” - live
(Hey, the lead singer has the same Jesu shirt as me!)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 8:42 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.