TOURNIQUET
“GAZING AT MEDUSA”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

8/10

Tourniquet are a progressive metal band from the USA formed by Ted Kirkpatrick in 1989. Throughout their thirty year career, Tourniquet have endured a number of line-up changes, and released ten studio albums, with ‘Gazing At Medusa’ the bands tenth. Featuring well known vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, ‘Gazing At Medusa’ is a journey of thrash influenced progressive heavy metal.

With a furious, thundering intro, the album gets underway with the fast paced ‘Sinister Scherzo’ rampaging on like a massive herd of elephants. Very heavy, ‘Sinister Scherzo’ is full on thrash infused heavy metal, with one helluva foot stomping breakdown just after the half way point. The new album has nine songs across a forty five minute play time, kinda average for a modern day release, but ‘Gazing At Medusa’ is anything but average. ‘Longing For Gondwanaland’ moves the album forward, planting both feet firmly in the progressive metal genre as it heavily romps on. Cracking guitar work across the first two songs shows influences from the iconic NWOBHM, thrash, hard rock and traditional heavy metal genres. ‘Longing For Gondwanaland’ turns into a menacing foot stomp as it plays out, setting up the very heavy, Black Sabbath styled doom metal snarl of ‘Memento Mori’ to crash the party. Heaviness knows no limits, with ‘Memento Mori’ swaying a savage path of gruffness as it strides on.

Pace lights up the album in glorious style as ‘All Good Things Died Here’ rockets off, eventually settling down to one of the heaviest mid tempo foot stomps you’re ever gonna hear. With such heaviness on offer, the average listener may be savagely crushed, but for the seasoned metal head, we stand firm and scream “bring it on”… And on Tourniquet brings it, with the hustling and bustling ‘The Crushing Weight Of Eternity’. The buzzing guitar sound is a hair raising experience as they scorch their way forward, pushing ‘The Crushing Weight Of Eternity’ along at pace. This is menacing heavy metal at its best, with a snarling vocal performance to add to the songs intimidatory aura. And then without warning, you get hit with more pace, more intensity and a huge influx of energy, as ‘The Crushing Weight Of Eternity’ fiercely hurtles along at high velocity to an end. Mellow and soulful, ‘The Peaceful Beauty Of Brutal Justice’ swaggers in from ballad territory, telling a painful story of which I’m not gonna divulge… I will let you listen for yourself to find it out. Suffice to say, ‘The Peaceful Beauty Of Brutal Justice’ doesn’t remain a ballad offering, hell no, it becomes an intense, scowling, aggressive romp of rage.

As I mentioned earlier, the guitar work on this album is superb. Plenty of NWOBHM inspired buzz sounding riffs, as well as the screeching and screaming you more associate with thrash, and of course the long passages synonymous with the progressive genre of metal. ‘Can’t Make Me Hate You’ is a deafening roar of aggression and in your face attitude, with an intensity level so far off the scale it’s gonna set a new record. Head nodding and foot tapping will accompany the heavy hitting ‘One Foot In Forever’. Adding touches of the hard rock genre, ‘One Foot In Forever’ is the most catchy and infectious song on offer, appealing to fans of both metal and rock. The final song on the album, also the title song, features The Dead Daisies drummer Deen Castronovo on vocals. Deen is a rock/metal legend, having played drums for many bands in a career spanning four decades. Wild Dogs, Cacophony, Geezer, Ozzy Osbourne and Journey are just some of the bands he has been a part of, and with his guest appearance here, it is his singing that takes centre stage. ‘Gazing At Medusa’ is a fast paced and furious traditional heavy metal romp, galloping at speed, one hundred percent “foot on the monitor” styled, and a glorious end to a very good album.

Overall, thrash, progressive, NWOBHM and traditional heavy metal all come together, delivering a fierce rage of furious metal.

TRACKLIST

Sinister Scherzo
Longing For Gondwanaland
Memento Mori
All Good Things Died Here
The Crushing Weight Of Eternity
The Peaceful Beauty Of Brutal Justice
Can’t Make Me Hate You
One Foot In Forever
Gazing At Medusa

https://tourniquet.net/
https://www.facebook.com/Tourniquet-56372703466/

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