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Tourniquet > Crawl to China > Reviews
Tourniquet - Crawl to China

An experimental playground meets contemporary late 90's heavy-rock - 75%

LarsA81, April 22nd, 2019

I know Tourniquet can pull of some crazy ideas and experimental music, but that super jazzy intro (with that amaaazing bass) at the beginning of “Claustrospelunker” was a surprise. I did not see that coming! And the rest of the track is new territory for the band as well – much more accessible and rock oriented music, yet also including some odd notes in one of the riffs. Taking a look back at their discography, the heavy-rocking and rather contemporary groove metal of Vanishing Lessons comes to mind.

And speaking of Vanishing Lessons, this is actually where the review should start. Three important years has passed since TQT touched new ground, and stepped away from their thrash metal with the 1994 release Vanishing Lessons. In the meantime the band has release an acoustic/soft rock ep and a “greatest hits” album containing two new songs, which also happens to be some of the most crushing and brutal tracks this band has ever done. So in 1997 the band could pretty much head in any direction if they wanted to, and even so, Crawl to China is something completely different and new for these guys.

First of, the band has been reduced to a 3-piece. Main composer and founding member Ted Kirkpatrick still pushes the buttons and makes the wheel roll. And he also moves a bit more around on his drum kit than he did on (most of) Vanishing Lessons. Luke Easter is still on board as the vocalist, and this album is probably one of his best! He does a great variety of vocals, but mainly uses that hoarse rock voice that fits the groovy metal perfectly. And then there is guitarist Aaron Guerra who squeezes every sound imaginable out of his instrument. He has a lot of rock moments in his playing, some very catchy melodies and some reaaally odd sounds and rather off-beat grooves. “Enveloped in Python” comes to mind and it is all over the place and has the awful, yet super cool sounding guitar to it. And “Proprioception” has a really whacky intro riff which you have to hear to believe. On top of that, he also does some vocals, and he is most notable on the title-track and “Tire Kicking”, where he delivers a good hardcore-ish yell the reminds me of Biohazard. However, he doesn’t do many solos on this album!

And then there are 15 (!) tracks of …. Ehm, well, this is where the review gets really difficult, because every track almost sounds like a new band. And pretty much nothing from what we have heard from them in the past. There might be a few tracks that could have fitted rather well on Vanishing Lessons. I am thinking of the heavier and bit more straightforward songs like “If Pigs Could Fly” (which includes a medley of older TQT-riffs at the outro), “Stumblefoot” and “Imaginary Friend”. And the very beautiful ballad “If I Was There” could have fitted well on the Carry the Wounded ep released a few years earlier. Other than those, the basic formulae of the songs are a rather typical late 90’s merge of groovy metal and heavy-rock music. But this album is spiced up with soooo much experimentation and works as one big playground for the band to mix in crazy ideas into each song. And in my opinion, this works really well and makes the album exciting and still kind of fresh to listen to. At least interesting.

Just some of the odd ideas from the top of my head would be:
- Very strange and long drum pattern on the title track, mixed with a super simple riff
- Heavy, almost swamp-y bas-sound on tracks like “Tire Kicking” and “Going, Going… Gone”.
- Flute solo on “Enveloped in Python”.
- Tea-party at the end of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, a re-telling of the Poe story
- “Bats” is almost like a kids song, but also include a riff that is really long, yet cool. I seem to remember reading somewhere ages ago that it contains over 100 notes!
- Slide guitar and small acoustic pieces here and there
- Added cheering and singing in canon on “Stumblefoot”
- An instrumental with (I think) seven different guitars as an outro of the record.

This makes TQT a band no one can predict the future sound of. They do whatever they feel like, and though this album in many ways scream of “mainstream”, it also doesn’t!! For instance, they made a music video for the title-track which is such a strange song, and songs like “White Knucklin’ the Rosary” or “If Pigs Could Fly” are much more radio-friendly. I honestly do not know the reason for this, but it kind of indicates that TQT could go all the way of the radio-friendly heavy music of the late 90’s, yet chooses their own path.

Crawl to China is a mouthful for most of the older TQT fans, and it is an album that probably gets a lot of love and hate. For me, it is just another example of the broad sound of this amazing band and even though it does have a 90’s feel to it, it still stands the test of time. Bravo!

White Knucklin' the Nineties - 47%

IceSage, October 6th, 2014
Written based on this version: 1997, CD, Benson Records

When The Collected Works of Tourniquet was released in 1996 it included two brutally heavy new thrash songs that echoed the brilliance of the band's classic era. Fans like myself took this as a signal that the band's wanderings in the land of radio rock (Carry the Wounded) and groove metal (Vanishing Lessons) were over and that Ted and company were ready to get back to the business of making the thrash metal masterpieces we craved. In stead what we actually got with Crawl to China is something I for one never would have expected. It is perhaps best described as a bizarre blend of indie rock, groove metal and pop.

Keep in mind that at this point in the band's history most of the original members had already jumped ship, leaving drummer Ted Kirkpatrick to bear the standard alone. But rather than call it quits he chose in stead to continue on with a skeleton crew that included himself, vocalist Luke Easter and guitarist/vocalist Aaron Guerra, so some change in sound was to be expected. Another change to the formula was the production which varies from thin to downright raw at times, but considering the fact that the album was produced by metal perfectionist Bill Metoyer (who also handled production work for all of the band's classic recordings) I can only assume these songs were intended to sound exactly the way they do. For longtime fans like myself it was a bit jarring when compared to the multi-layered, effects-laden compositions of the band's earlier work. Also, by simplifying the musical formula and shedding the complex song structures of the past the band managed to lose a great deal of their unique appeal.

It is perhaps the height of irony that Guy Ritter apparently left the band because he preferred a lighter, more accessible style and felt that the band was departing from it's christian roots, only to have Ted take the first opportunity to dive head first into catchy, radio-friendly rock and ballads squarely aimed at the christian fans. I mean, the opening track 'Claustrospelunker' may have one of those scientific/medical-oriented titles like the songs of old, but that's where the similarities end. Make no mistake, this song has far more in common with Weezer than Slayer. Oh, it's catchy no doubt, but you won't be raising the metal horns to this one. After that you'll encounter the travesty otherwise known as the title track. The simplistic, lollipop-guild type melody and rap-core vocal delivery swiftly exceed my tolerance level. The low-budget video made for the song showed the band wandering around a library looking bored and was even worse than the song itself.

OK, so if you're still around when track three begins things start to step back in the right direction. 'Enveloped in Python' begins with what sounds to me like some sort of Hindu chanting followed by a crushing thrash riff and some slow but deliberate strumming on a horrifically (and purposely so) out of tune guitar. As bizarre as that all might sound, it actually works and makes for a truly interesting textural back drop for Luke's poetically spoken lines traded off with Aaron's shouts and some weird melodic noodling on what might be a flute. It's a pretty cool tune and possibly one of the band's most unique. Sadly, the rest of the songs tend to land in the category of (christian) radio-friendly rock category. I emphasize the christian aspect since a number of these songs will have little or no appeal to anyone outside the Church, particularly the worship ballad 'If I Was There' and the silly, simplistic children's tune 'Bats'. It's really no wonder Metal Blade wasn't interested in carrying this one.

There are three noteworthy exceptions to point out. The infectious hook on 'White Knucklin' the Rosary' is impossible to resist and plays well on Luke Easter's strengths - a keeper for sure. Then there's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' which retells the famous Edgar Allen Poe tale but with a slick drumming/guitar trade off that brilliantly mimics the beating of a heart - love it! Finally, 'Going, Going... Gone' is this album's token animal welfare song and gives very effective use of Luke's tranquil, almost spoken singing. The guitar on that one sounds down-tuned, kind of foreshadowing a certain stoner metal solo album Kirkpatrick would release many years later.

For the album closer we get an odd instrumental treat. The old patriotic tune 'America' (perhaps better known as 'America the Beautiful') might start off a little hokey with a banjo and some cannon fire but pretty quickly reveals a song that got the full Trans-Siberian Orchestra style work over, and to very good effect.

Without a doubt this change in direction further distanced the band from the classically-infused thrash sound that got them major label attention in the past and consequently alienated all but their most loyal fans. It is sure to remain the red-headed stepchild of the Tourniquet discography despite the fact that it does indeed have a few excellent songs, and a couple that are worth it just for the novelty factor. The remastered version has a vastly improved cover (courtesy of Rexorcist) with the band's classic thrash-style logo back in it's rightful place, and the song order was effectively reshuffled to put the stronger material up front. Thankfully the band heard the overwhelmingly negative fan response to this album and shifted solidly back onto the right track with the next album.

Crawling to nowhere - 3%

Kalelfromkrypton, April 21st, 2010

It is said that a book should never been judged by its cover. This statement applies to music as well. An uninteresting cover will not appeal to anyone in a music shop unless you already know that you will be looking for that particular shelf and that you don’t care for the cover. Around 1997 there was already digital technology enough to design cool artworks and covers. If you see Crawl to China in a retailer, do you really think anyone would pick it up? I seriously doubt it, especially considering the abomination that is behind it. This is the worst Tourniquet cover ever and along with ‘Load’ by Metallica, Korn’s covers and thousands others was a waste of paper and trees.

Did I just say ‘abomination’? Humm, I don’t think that is enough, I prefer ABORTION. I mean, we all know all bands have their bad moments. Some reviewer said (can’t recall for what album or band): ‘let’s face it, bad records just happen’ and damn was he right! Metallica has ‘St. Anger’, Megadeth has ‘Risk’, Stryper has ‘Reborn’, Bride has…well, a lot of shitty records around the end of the 90s, Guardian has ‘Bottle rocket’, etc. but this is nothing but utter defecation. I listened to this bastard album only one when it came out (that was 13 years ago) and I haven’t needed to even try to listen it since then. It was so disgusting that I feel vomiting if I think of trying to listen to even one song.

I have always said that evolution is part of nature. Bands have to evolve and adequate to times but put out absolute shit is not evolution, is self destruction. Let’s elaborate: Tourniquet, since ‘Stop bleeding’ has been changing and that is ok, ‘Stop’, ‘Psycho’, ‘Pathogenic’ were more than good albums with excellent thrash tunes and atmospheres. ‘Vanishing lessons’ was the first brick falling over where they turned to more hardcore-hard rock styled song writing and influences. ‘Crawl to China’ was the culmination of ‘run-out of ideas’ by Kirkpatrick and without a good guitar player this was just the push to the precipice. What a way to erase a good career as a speed/thrash metal band.

I am not judging the album itself being from a thrash band. I am judging as a hard rock, alternative rock or whatever shit you want to box it in. If we talk about hard rock then this is miles…ages behind Shakra, Gotthard, Jaded Heart, Final Frontier, etc. There are not catchy tunes, no intelligent song writing, no provoking lyrics, no interesting tunes, and no cool riffs. It is just a black hole in their career. They realized their mistake and they HAD to go back to old style with their next album (although they lost the magic anyway) but this simply didn’t work. Some alternative influences are thrown in the mix because of the tendencies of those years and some grunge perhaps, (YES GRUNGE my fellow reviewers). This is some fusion that simply screwed completely an already bad-shit album. I can’t even imagine Bill Metoyer letting his name to be put on this bullshit.

I haven’t even described any song. The other guys just did it and there is no time valuable enough to waste on such description from my part. You can easily download any song on youtube and you will listen to what I am talking about. Don’t waste your precious time listening to this….to this… I don’t even know what to call it, I ran out of pejorative words. I know: this motherfucking stupidity of so called album. Tourniquet had to crawl to get fans back.

Christian Hard Rock - 72%

Erdrickgr, January 6th, 2008

By this point, the drummer Kirkpatrick is the only remaining founding member. Kirkpatrick did about half the song writing on the earlier records, but it was often the guitars of Lenaire and a couple others which drove the songs. So, suffice to say, while the first three records by Tourniquet were solid--and even at times brilliant--thrash, this is just hard rock music.

A lot of people have slammed this record, because they are viewing it as a rock record by a thrash band. But considering that it's essentially an entirely different band, I don't think we should expect the same type of music from them. Even Tourniquet's later albums, which returned somewhat to their thrash roots, didn't sound like their earlier stuff. Thus, I'll be judging it mostly as a rock album.

So what do we have here? Some slightly above average music, some filler, some interesting riffs, and a bit of experimenting. On this record you'll find everything from punk to hardcore to jazz. Some of the songs are a bit strange, such as Bats, which starts off with perhaps the simplest riff to have ever been written. Other songs, like If Pigs Could Fly, are snoozefests. But most songs fall into a middle, slightly above average, range. Nothing that's gonna wow you, but just a bit above mediocre.

The guitars are up front much of the time, having a distinctive tone and a full sound. Sometimes they even sound powerful, such as on the power chord slides done on Enveloped in Python. Unfortunately, the riffs are not particularly metallic, though they do have a fair amount of energy on about half the songs, and also sound decent on a few of the more sombre and ballady songs. If judged as a rock record, the riffs are more than adequate here.

Luke's vocals take some getting used to, but once you do they're not half bad. When he actually sings, such as in the ballad If I Was There, he's actually pretty good. Most of the time, though, he has a gruff vocal delivery that is hard to get into at first. But in the end, the dirtier vocals really help elevate the music, and more importantly, add a distinctive tone to the album. I've not heard too many singers out there that sound like this guy.

The lyrics are usually of a spiritual nature, though Tourniquet doesn't beat you over the head with Christianity. However, I do have to say that some of the lyrics are just plain silly, such as some of the lyrics for Bats:

"Bats, bats, bats
You think they'll hit you but they won't
You think they nest in your hair
But they don't

Bats, bats, bats
You think that feathers is what they got
You think they are a bird, but they are not
The old adage 'blind as a bat'

The truth is they can see
But not as good as you and me
Bats, bats, bats"

I used to play that song for my toddler brother, and he always got a kick out of the chorus... "bats! bats! bats!" Imagine that played over the simplest riff you've ever heard (even easier than Smoke on the Water). Not exactly heavy metal material. Other songs fare better, such as The Tell-Tale Heart, a retelling of the story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. As far as the other instruments, they are given a nice hearing on the album. The bass gets it's moments to shine on this album, such as the jazzy bass intro to the album; and the drums are also good, as one would expect of Kirkpatrick.

The problem with the album is that there are just too many damn songs on here, and not nearly enough interesting ones. At 68 minutes long, this album is way too long. But overall the experience isn't too bad--it's good enough to get a 72 rating, I think. The people interested in this album would probably be Christian rock fans, though your average hard rock fan could also probably get into it.