To the uninitiated, Floridian metallers Torche present a curious proposition: sludge metal meets flashes of pop melody; black t-shirts and shaven heads; riffs that wind, spit and crunch from musicians who resolutely refuse the self-indulgence of glam.
Yet with their brightly coloured third album Harmonicraft and its accomplished follow-up Restarter, they seem to be one of the few modern metal bands who wouldn’t be perfectly happy had musical history not advanced beyond the first few Deep Purple albums.
Disdaining typical black clad haunts like Cathouse in favour of the more salubrious Centre for Contemporary Arts, the quartet work hard at crafting an immersive atmosphere, but before the main act, it’s up to Henry Blacker to bring the bassy chug of vintage Motorhead to the CCA, a venue that looks better suited to performances of Peter Pan than a cohort of metal bands fresh off the ferry.
Drawing from thrash, punk and stoner rock, the quartet rumble like Kyuss crawling bleary eyed out into the light, with the guitarist and bassist trading weighty low-end heavy breakdowns.
The crowd is sparse, but fans of thundering breakdowns and crunching chorded riffs should look out for the group if they ever return to Glasgow.
Downstairs the Scottish Album of the Year awards reception proceeds in comparative bliss, but up in the dimly lit hall, it’s time for the night to get even louder.
Mainstream music prizes have traditionally neglected the heavier fringes of modern music and the SAY awards are no exception.
However if any of the delegates did happen to stumble upstairs it’s almost certain that they wouldn’t regret their decision.
On their exceptional third album Harmonicraft, Torche matched the power and density of doom metal with the glitz of a Foo Fighters record, while the intensity with which they attack their instruments shows that they could easily be a damn fine punk band.
With sparingly deployed leads delivered like lightning bolts, they offer a fat free take on modern metal and though the new record slips into more conventional stoner rock territory, the battering beats and oddly riffs of tracks like ‘Kicking’ offer a fresh and powerful take on modern metal.
There’s little indulgence on show as the four-piece batter through a dozen and a half songs in just an hour and a half, frequently wrenching the first chord of a new track from the dying embers of its predecessor.
If there’s one criticism to be levelled it’s that Steve Brooks is still not the strongest vocalist, but that’s more than made up for by the instrumental heft of he and his band’s sonic barrage; Torche are standard bearers for a bright and beautiful future for heavy music.
Words: Max Sefton
