Torche: Meanderthal (Boston Phoenix, 4/8/08)

Since metal is a world created by male dorks, it has to be the most excessively sub-categorized genre of music ever. But there are really only two kinds of metal: the kind with comprehensible riffs (e.g., Sabbath), and the kind with incomprehensible riffs that are just blurs (like, say, Dillinger Escape Plan). These days, anything in the first category tends to be labeled “stoner” — as Florida’s Torche often are — since comprehensibility is not usually considered a very “metal” thing. Fuck that. Here’s an odd adjective to describe the sound of the new Torche: “sunny.” Does it have brutal palm-muted frettage and brain-detonating drum barrages? Yes it does, among the stacked vocal harmonies, Wipers-esque psychedelia, and Jesus Lizardish bass lurches. Don’t let the dizzying flurry of Rush-meets-Lightning-Bolt album opener “Triumph of Venus” fool you into thinking that this is the work of wink-wink nudge-nudge metallers. Amid a sea of sword-wielding D&D ironists, Torche seem to be quietly resurrecting the earnest-minded heaviness of mid-’90s post-“grunge” — you know, bands with one-word names and blurry-photo album covers like Quicksand. If this all sounds conflicting and contradictory in theory, it isn’t in practice, and it’s all over way too quickly anyway.