When you have hours upon hours in a dorm room to just listen to music, you often find a lot of bands as they’re introduced to the greater metal world. Namely, Torche’s Harmonicraft was a something special. The band’s third LP combined sludge metal and some catchy hooks to do something unique and different. Now, 2019 brings their fifth, Admission, and with it we see an aging band, coming forward once more with longevity in mind.
Admission is very much a continuation of Restarter and continues in that direction very much so. There are still hooks to be had and interesting ideas to explore in an subtle, pinkly decorated collection of songs, but Torche are exploring new ground artistically without betraying their sludgy roots. This album has doom elements throughout, the rock elements Torche has always acknowledged, and many an impressive moment, but with it Admission may disappoint in that it’s not a contemporary album by any means.
What I mean by this is that Torche have made Admission a very intrinsic album, and one that can be very meditative and droning at times. I don’t think those terms equate to being “boring,” but the band take very artistic merits with their formula and aim to be different for one. Torche land somewhere between the rock-laden hooks of Baroness and the progressive, altruistic mentality of Intronaut, and even then they’re still very much themselves.
So plainly put, it’s a good album. At eleven tracks and just over 39 minutes long, Admission doesn’t overstay its welcome. Perhaps its greatest mistake is that it holds its best moments hostage for the second half of the track listing. The first half is solid, make no mistake, but it’s in the second half where tracks like “Extreme of Consciousness” and “Infierno” rear their heads and it’s damn good. Really damn good in the latter’s case. Thankfully, as well, there’s no fat to cut on Admission, either; Torche get right to the point and have that punk rock attitude of no frills, no fills.
Production wise I think is where I start to nit-pick at everything. Guitar tones are nasty, the bass is big, drums sound great, and the vocal are damn near perfectly mixed. I think if they were a bit more forward in the mix it would’ve had the same effect without it seeming like they were deep in there. I think – also nit picking – that the guitars could’ve been less compressed and would’ve created a lot more atmosphere and feeling had they put reverb on them. (Sans “Infierno”) Even still, they sound pretty great and have a lot of clarity for how massive they are.
With all this said and done, though, Torche are really moving in an interesting direction. Their songwriting is still tight as ever and the band is only widening the pool of sounds they can choose from. Admission is a good time, and if you’re looking for some easy listening that’s still decently heavy enough, look no further.
Admission is out everywhere on July 12th via Relapse Records. You can stream the video for the title track below.
