TOURNIQUET - "MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF A TELESCOPIC REALM" (METAL BLADE)

 

I don't like people who tell me what to do, or what not to do. I hate it when people have this "holier than thou" attitude, and my instinct tells me to ignore them. If I were more psychopathically inclined, my instinct might tell me to crush them underfoot, kill them painfully, inflict upon them the same atrocities that the inquisition used to do to infidels. I am, however, a pretty down-to-earth and not particularly psychopathically inclined person. Perhaps that's for the better.

Tourniquet are a religiously influenced band, let there be no mistake about that. Their CD booklet is filled with references to the bible, and they take a vocal stance against animal abuse and several other social topics. They are on the razor edge, as far as I'm concerned, to being ignorable, holier-than-thou kind of people. However, before you get the wrong idea, this is going to be a very favourable review...

I like a variety of bands that I never really listened to the lyrics of. Some of them may be satanists or abusers of women or, may god sort them out, closet coprophagists for all I know or care. Then why would I care about Tourniquet's religious rantings? Of course, general Christian values of the "be kind to others" and "respect the world" kind are good and should be adhered to by all of humanity, but I don't need a bible or a priest to tell me that. Your parents are supposed to do that, just as a part of a decent upbringing, and if they don't then, well, they're not the best parents you could wish for. I back up these values, I just do not think they should be crammed down people's throats.

All of that is, of course, my opinion. Also, it's basically a the roundabout way of my saying "so I am going to ignore Tourniquet's preaching and will concentrate on the music instead." I never could be concise, sorry.

Most of "Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm" (the title referring to how blinkered our view of the entire world is) is a musical joy to listen to. It kicks of with a heavy and focused performance entitled "Besprinkled in Scarlet Horror". It sounds, in fact, very much like Rush gone thrash. The final two minutes lose focus by introducing a flute and soft singing, marring the song. This is amply made up by the heavy-as-f*@k second track, "Drinking from the Poisoned Well", which starts slowly but the crescendoes into a truly great track. The title track is a bit more grungy though still OK, but then follow a handful of tracks that I can but describe as "inferior". Tracks four through eight, actually, are mediocre in comparison to the other tracks. This bad impression vanished like the proverbial snow before the sun (or, if you will, sinners for the religious zealot) with the instrumental, "Immunity Vector", one of the most brilliant tracks on the album. There's the flute again, but this time it fits, it's tasteful, it's full of great riffs and sound drumming. Way ta go! The final three tracks ("Indulgence by Proxy", "Caixa de Raiva" and "The Skeezix Dilemma Part II") then manage to restore fully the damage done by those earlier, relatively mediocre tracks. The final track features some interesting accompanying sound effects, a cello intro and a general stellar performance by three grade A musicians.

Clocking at 70 minutes exactly, one cannot help but feel that the album would have been better without tracks four through eight, and would still have been a thoroughly satisfactory three quarters of an hour of excellent thrash.

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RK

 

Written February 2000

 

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