Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sludge/Drone-Metal Sophistication Meets Rock Energy, May 22, 2008
The problem with a lot of rock and punk music is that all-too-often there isn't enough backing the standard "catchiness" and energy to make it hold up over repeated listens. And especially for those of us headphone-listeners, such music seems flat and lacking texture.
For sludge/drone/"post"-metal (there's far too many names for this loose confederation of bands), the problem is very much the opposite. For all the carefully-crafted texture, soundscapes and melodies, time/signature changes and complex drum-work there isn't much of the music that is instantly accessible - no melodies that are easy to hum along with, no beats that are easy to tap out - and hence the genre toils in obscurity.
If only there was a band that could combine the strengths of both and hence eliminate their weaknesses... fortunately, TORCHE is to the rescue with their sophomore effort Meanderthal.
Writing almost radio-friendly rock songs and infusing them with the ponderous depth of post-metal and the energy (and brevity) of punk rock, Torche have found a groove that should resonate with a lot of people. This is music that you can play at parties or with a car-full of friends who have never heard of Isis or Pelican or Neurosis (I tried this experiment myself), but also music that you can take home and throw on the home stereo or headphones and also appreciate the details that Torche have ingrained into each one of their songs.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
8/10, July 30, 2008
Meanderthal clocks in pretty short, with only one song surpassing the 5-minute mark, and several under the 3-minute mark, but it flows as easily as thirteen cheap beers through a funnel and does about as much damage. "Triumph of Venus" acts as a short, instrumental introduction to the album, but right from the start you can tell that nothing is going to be held back here. It's the topic sentence of the album, and lets you know right up front what's in store: fast-paced Sabbath-inspired tunes that blend the highs and lows of sludgy metal and stoner rock. Even if the vocals leave something to be desired, you get a good share of creative riffage and murky guitar solos throughout.
Meanderthal is a marked improvement over Torche's first album. The sound is cleaner and more refined, yet it still somehow contains the raw heaviness expected from this band. Like that crunch in the self-titled track; drop-F tuning, or whatever it is they did there. Overall, it's a happy brand of doom-laced sludge with a dash of pop, that instead of making you want to simply crawl in a hole and die, may make you want to pilot a hand-glider over a stretch of desert in the American southwest, and culminate the experience by slamming full speed into the side of a cliff, dying thusly. Recommended for fans of early Black Sabbath, Queens of the Stone Age, Isis, etc.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just got this record; just saw them live in Cambridge, MA, May 19, 2008
I cant believe how good this band and this album are. I havent even heard any of their other stuff yet, because I'm still letting "Meanderthal" sink in... but I CAN tell you that I saw them live last night and they were as good in person as they were on stage.
What a weirdly likeable band: in them you can hear Helmet, the Foo Fighters, standard metal, standard punk, and none of those things at the same time.
These guys deserve to be huge.
I'm a fan of this record, at the very least, for life.
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