Reviewing Aaron Guerra's songs in Tourniquet
2 posters
Page 1 of 1
Reviewing Aaron Guerra's songs in Tourniquet
by Airola Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:29 pm
Years ago I did this to Gary Lenaire's songs (both from his Tourniquet and post Tourniquet career) and as I've now been listening to Aaron's songs in Antiseptic Bloodbath quite a bit and really enjoyed them I thought it would be interesting to take a look at his work as a composer in general in Tourniquet.
Before I go further, I want to come clear that I've used to view some of these songs as more of the filler side of Tourniquet album material. Not that they've been the worst songs (every single one of them were better than Bats, for example) or even bad songs, but if I've skipped songs they've for some reason more likely been Aaron's songs than the other songs. Looking back it's probably been because they have been quite a lot different from the rest of the material in various ways. And a bit to my surprise after giving a bit of thought into if Microscopic could be without Aaron's songs, I found myself thinking no way! That album needs the Aaron songs to be what it is.
That said, I think it's time to really look at the songs for what they are without comparing too much to the other songs in those albums, or at least not letting that affect too much to what I think about the songs as themselves.
-----------------------------
CRAWL TO CHINA
THE TELL-TALE HEART
This is one of the heaviest tracks on Crawl to China at some parts.
What I like in this song is the dark mood.
The heavy riff is something I haven't really ever liked that much. It has this "nu-metalish" alternative metal groove and while it is really heavy it kinda shows too much of the time the album was released in. A lot of metal started to go to that certain direction at the time, although I have to give it to Tourniquet that they were a bit ahead the curve as the popularity of this style really gained popularity after Crawl to China was released. Still, I didn't quite enjoy that style then and I don't quite enjoy it now either.
That said, it's just one riff here and shouldn't be too big of a problem. When the riff changes into the dark longer note thing when singing starts it sounds very good to me.
The song loses me a bit in the happy sounding acoustic part.
The song is at its best when it's just dark and doesn't go for "alternative attitude" groove riffing.
CRANK THE KNIFE
The opening is odd. I kinda like and dislike it at the same time. At the same time there's nothing I like about it what comes to sound and composition and there's something I really like about it. And I don't know what it is. Is it the basslines, is it the weirdly likable and dislikable clean electric guitar sound? I think it might be the uniqueness it brings to the song. As Luke Easter has told in some recent interviews, he thought Crawl to China was great because every song sounded so different. They all had their unique feeling. And maybe the opening here brings a lot of that to the song and gives a sense of individuality for the song.
The groovy metal riff here is better than the one in The Tell-Tale Heart. It's more of groove metal than alternative metal.
Fore some reason I've always liked the ending a lot, the melancholic guitars and the odd-sounding man repeating the lyrics that sounds like some native person tries to repeat English sentences while shedding a tear.
IMAGINARY FRIEND
I don't like the weird verses much at all, but as soon as it gets to the chorus I LOVE IT! It's one of my all-time favorite Tourniquet choruses. Really beautiful stuff. I think I read somewhere that the guitars (in the chorus, I recall) were originally different but someone suggested the riff should be played backwards.
I don't quite understand the point of the last part of the song. The happy sounding hard rock riff. It's ok but doesn't really fit in the mood I get from the chorus. This would probably be Aaron's worst track in the album, but the chorus is SO STRONG it's actually his best track in the album.
Overall:
I think we can hear a bit of what's Guerra's style compared to Ted, but with this album it's not that easy of a thing to understand as every single song has its very own individual feeling to it. The songs might sound different to the rest of the material, but then again so do every single song in the album. Yet the whole album sounds consistent because of that!
I think I didn't use to skip these songs that much ever. It's probably because of the aforementioned reason; all of the songs in this album sound so different from each other that almost every song becomes equally skippable/unskippable.
-----------------------------
MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF A TELESCOPIC REALM
In Microscopic you can really hear what are the Guerra songs. You either like them or you don't but they sound different to the rest of the material. Only maybe Indulgence by Proxy could be a song that tricks you to think it was composed by Guerra, but I'd say that has certain clear things going on that aren't Guerra's style at all but more of Ted's style.
SERVANT OF THE BONES
This used to be one of the "filler tracks" for me in the album. I think it's because it's because the first four tracks have this technical thrash feeling to them and this suddenly gets into a territory that's mixed with softer groove based heavy metal, moody doomier type of metal and semi nu-metalish "attitude" groove. It's far from the style the previous tracks have and the style it's going for isn't something that I was hoping for.
That said, it's a good song now that I've gotten used to it. Especially the moody doomy part is really good and I think the album would lose a lot if that wasn't there.
MARTYR'S POSE
The acoustic opening has always been great. Beautiful and haunting stuff.
Then it turns weird. And again, initially this type of weirdness diverted so far from the weirdness of most of the rest of the album, that sometimes I would skip this too. There's a bit of this "alternative metal" vibe to this too.
CAIXA DE RAIVA
A groovy hard rock song. I kinda see why Ted must've liked it when the opening riff plays. It kinda has the type of a bluesy groove going on that has been present in many more recent songs by Ted. It doesn't quite catch me the way a lot of the other riffs in the album do, but when the faster part at 1:18 starts the song becomes really exciting... but only for a moment though as it pretty quickly changes into mellower and darker thing, which I think is cool too.
Overall:
I might say this album has the weakest Guerra songs.
Well... It's not that the songs are weak by themselves but they seem to stand out from most of the rest of the material the most here.
But on the other hand, after listening the album through lord knows how many times in my life, they really serve their purpose as giving the album this special kind of a flow. It's hard to explain, but it's like these songs put the album on a leash at certain points and pulls it back into what Tourniquet was during the past couple of albums but with this weird feeling that we are standing on uneven ground. They are not just simple hard rock or attitude metal songs but there are these weird composition choices going on that kinda have this weird avantgardish feeling I feel should be part of the album.
-----------------------------
ANTISEPTIC BLOODBATH
DUPLICITOUS ENDEAVOR
The opening is very heavy and has this distinct thing going on that sounds Guerra we've known in the previous albums. The heavy riff is less of Guerra's previous "attitude metal" style even though it has a tiny bit of that feeling too, but it's the lead guitar parts on top of that that sound like Guerra, which requires a bit of time to get used to.
When the opening is over and the singing begins, it starts to sound really good! Luke has a bit of a Going Going Gone vibe in his singing and it fits really well with the riff that's playing along him. I think this is actually his best guitar riff he has written up to this point. The chord progression is exactly something I'm into and there's this short moment with a guitar harmony in the riff that's a great hook for me!
The chorus is not that good for me, but it's ok. It's the weird thing Guerra does. Odd composition.
The last third of the song is great again! I love the riff and Guerra's vocals sound really good there! I think here he's the closest to Gary Lenaire's unique shouting voice he's ever been.
CARRIED AWAY ON UNCERTAIN WINGS
The opening sounds like it could be a doomy closing track on a Megadeth album.
The riff on main verses is FANTASTIC! It might even be really high on my all time favorite Tourniquet riffs. The "Hetfield" type of singing fits really well with that riff. Certainly the best riff Aaron has written!
The super heavy riff during the choruses has been something that's probably made me skip the song at times. It kinda felt too "modern" for my taste, but now I seem to really really love it.
Overall:
Definitely Guerra's best songs, there's no contest about it!
I can't believe I at some point skipped these songs once in a while (which I sometimes did with The Maiden Who Slept in the Glass Coffin too, which also is something I can't believe I did as that song is really good too).
Both of these songs are among the best of the whole album for me now.
-----------------------------
Here's how I would rate all Guerra's songs:
1. Carried Away on Uncertain Wings
2. Duplicitous Endeavor (might be number 1 at times though)
3. Imaginary Friend
4. Crank the Knife
5. The Tell-Tale Heart
6. Servant of the Bones
7. Caixa de Raiva
8. Martyr's Pose
To analyze his overall style a bit, he often writes very heavy riffs and they go closer to what is modern in mainstream hard rock and metal scene at the time of the album release. He goes for the alternative metal style quite a bit and brings in some "attitude metal" kind of groove. Along with that he seems to like to make slower songs. Slow and heavy. When it gets faster, it gets more into bluesy hard rock territory. And pretty much all of the songs have some really weird compositional choices, something that is much different from whatever weird compositional choices Ted usually does. Both are weird but in completely different ways. I tend to like Ted's choices more than Aaron's but as proven with the songs on Antiseptic Bloodbath, he really can hit the right spot for my taste in metal too and I would love if he'd write a few songs for the next Tourniquet album.
Before I go further, I want to come clear that I've used to view some of these songs as more of the filler side of Tourniquet album material. Not that they've been the worst songs (every single one of them were better than Bats, for example) or even bad songs, but if I've skipped songs they've for some reason more likely been Aaron's songs than the other songs. Looking back it's probably been because they have been quite a lot different from the rest of the material in various ways. And a bit to my surprise after giving a bit of thought into if Microscopic could be without Aaron's songs, I found myself thinking no way! That album needs the Aaron songs to be what it is.
That said, I think it's time to really look at the songs for what they are without comparing too much to the other songs in those albums, or at least not letting that affect too much to what I think about the songs as themselves.
-----------------------------
CRAWL TO CHINA
THE TELL-TALE HEART
This is one of the heaviest tracks on Crawl to China at some parts.
What I like in this song is the dark mood.
The heavy riff is something I haven't really ever liked that much. It has this "nu-metalish" alternative metal groove and while it is really heavy it kinda shows too much of the time the album was released in. A lot of metal started to go to that certain direction at the time, although I have to give it to Tourniquet that they were a bit ahead the curve as the popularity of this style really gained popularity after Crawl to China was released. Still, I didn't quite enjoy that style then and I don't quite enjoy it now either.
That said, it's just one riff here and shouldn't be too big of a problem. When the riff changes into the dark longer note thing when singing starts it sounds very good to me.
The song loses me a bit in the happy sounding acoustic part.
The song is at its best when it's just dark and doesn't go for "alternative attitude" groove riffing.
CRANK THE KNIFE
The opening is odd. I kinda like and dislike it at the same time. At the same time there's nothing I like about it what comes to sound and composition and there's something I really like about it. And I don't know what it is. Is it the basslines, is it the weirdly likable and dislikable clean electric guitar sound? I think it might be the uniqueness it brings to the song. As Luke Easter has told in some recent interviews, he thought Crawl to China was great because every song sounded so different. They all had their unique feeling. And maybe the opening here brings a lot of that to the song and gives a sense of individuality for the song.
The groovy metal riff here is better than the one in The Tell-Tale Heart. It's more of groove metal than alternative metal.
Fore some reason I've always liked the ending a lot, the melancholic guitars and the odd-sounding man repeating the lyrics that sounds like some native person tries to repeat English sentences while shedding a tear.
IMAGINARY FRIEND
I don't like the weird verses much at all, but as soon as it gets to the chorus I LOVE IT! It's one of my all-time favorite Tourniquet choruses. Really beautiful stuff. I think I read somewhere that the guitars (in the chorus, I recall) were originally different but someone suggested the riff should be played backwards.
I don't quite understand the point of the last part of the song. The happy sounding hard rock riff. It's ok but doesn't really fit in the mood I get from the chorus. This would probably be Aaron's worst track in the album, but the chorus is SO STRONG it's actually his best track in the album.
Overall:
I think we can hear a bit of what's Guerra's style compared to Ted, but with this album it's not that easy of a thing to understand as every single song has its very own individual feeling to it. The songs might sound different to the rest of the material, but then again so do every single song in the album. Yet the whole album sounds consistent because of that!
I think I didn't use to skip these songs that much ever. It's probably because of the aforementioned reason; all of the songs in this album sound so different from each other that almost every song becomes equally skippable/unskippable.
-----------------------------
MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF A TELESCOPIC REALM
In Microscopic you can really hear what are the Guerra songs. You either like them or you don't but they sound different to the rest of the material. Only maybe Indulgence by Proxy could be a song that tricks you to think it was composed by Guerra, but I'd say that has certain clear things going on that aren't Guerra's style at all but more of Ted's style.
SERVANT OF THE BONES
This used to be one of the "filler tracks" for me in the album. I think it's because it's because the first four tracks have this technical thrash feeling to them and this suddenly gets into a territory that's mixed with softer groove based heavy metal, moody doomier type of metal and semi nu-metalish "attitude" groove. It's far from the style the previous tracks have and the style it's going for isn't something that I was hoping for.
That said, it's a good song now that I've gotten used to it. Especially the moody doomy part is really good and I think the album would lose a lot if that wasn't there.
MARTYR'S POSE
The acoustic opening has always been great. Beautiful and haunting stuff.
Then it turns weird. And again, initially this type of weirdness diverted so far from the weirdness of most of the rest of the album, that sometimes I would skip this too. There's a bit of this "alternative metal" vibe to this too.
CAIXA DE RAIVA
A groovy hard rock song. I kinda see why Ted must've liked it when the opening riff plays. It kinda has the type of a bluesy groove going on that has been present in many more recent songs by Ted. It doesn't quite catch me the way a lot of the other riffs in the album do, but when the faster part at 1:18 starts the song becomes really exciting... but only for a moment though as it pretty quickly changes into mellower and darker thing, which I think is cool too.
Overall:
I might say this album has the weakest Guerra songs.
Well... It's not that the songs are weak by themselves but they seem to stand out from most of the rest of the material the most here.
But on the other hand, after listening the album through lord knows how many times in my life, they really serve their purpose as giving the album this special kind of a flow. It's hard to explain, but it's like these songs put the album on a leash at certain points and pulls it back into what Tourniquet was during the past couple of albums but with this weird feeling that we are standing on uneven ground. They are not just simple hard rock or attitude metal songs but there are these weird composition choices going on that kinda have this weird avantgardish feeling I feel should be part of the album.
-----------------------------
ANTISEPTIC BLOODBATH
DUPLICITOUS ENDEAVOR
The opening is very heavy and has this distinct thing going on that sounds Guerra we've known in the previous albums. The heavy riff is less of Guerra's previous "attitude metal" style even though it has a tiny bit of that feeling too, but it's the lead guitar parts on top of that that sound like Guerra, which requires a bit of time to get used to.
When the opening is over and the singing begins, it starts to sound really good! Luke has a bit of a Going Going Gone vibe in his singing and it fits really well with the riff that's playing along him. I think this is actually his best guitar riff he has written up to this point. The chord progression is exactly something I'm into and there's this short moment with a guitar harmony in the riff that's a great hook for me!
The chorus is not that good for me, but it's ok. It's the weird thing Guerra does. Odd composition.
The last third of the song is great again! I love the riff and Guerra's vocals sound really good there! I think here he's the closest to Gary Lenaire's unique shouting voice he's ever been.
CARRIED AWAY ON UNCERTAIN WINGS
The opening sounds like it could be a doomy closing track on a Megadeth album.
The riff on main verses is FANTASTIC! It might even be really high on my all time favorite Tourniquet riffs. The "Hetfield" type of singing fits really well with that riff. Certainly the best riff Aaron has written!
The super heavy riff during the choruses has been something that's probably made me skip the song at times. It kinda felt too "modern" for my taste, but now I seem to really really love it.
Overall:
Definitely Guerra's best songs, there's no contest about it!
I can't believe I at some point skipped these songs once in a while (which I sometimes did with The Maiden Who Slept in the Glass Coffin too, which also is something I can't believe I did as that song is really good too).
Both of these songs are among the best of the whole album for me now.
-----------------------------
Here's how I would rate all Guerra's songs:
1. Carried Away on Uncertain Wings
2. Duplicitous Endeavor (might be number 1 at times though)
3. Imaginary Friend
4. Crank the Knife
5. The Tell-Tale Heart
6. Servant of the Bones
7. Caixa de Raiva
8. Martyr's Pose
To analyze his overall style a bit, he often writes very heavy riffs and they go closer to what is modern in mainstream hard rock and metal scene at the time of the album release. He goes for the alternative metal style quite a bit and brings in some "attitude metal" kind of groove. Along with that he seems to like to make slower songs. Slow and heavy. When it gets faster, it gets more into bluesy hard rock territory. And pretty much all of the songs have some really weird compositional choices, something that is much different from whatever weird compositional choices Ted usually does. Both are weird but in completely different ways. I tend to like Ted's choices more than Aaron's but as proven with the songs on Antiseptic Bloodbath, he really can hit the right spot for my taste in metal too and I would love if he'd write a few songs for the next Tourniquet album.
Last edited by Airola on Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
Airola- Holy Unblack Knight
- Posts : 1001
Join date : 2012-02-01
Age : 41
Location : Finland
Re: Reviewing Aaron Guerra's songs in Tourniquet
by TZ75 Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:39 pm
Cool idea for a thread. Thanks for your thoughts.
TZ75- Holy Unblack Knight
- Posts : 4346
Join date : 2019-08-20
Re: Reviewing Aaron Guerra's songs in Tourniquet
by TZ75 Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:56 pm
Now on a different note and subject, (because I don’t want to start a thread just for one question)...
Have you seen or read Ted’s “potty humor” book from the Tourniquet website? Is it funny or worth getting?
Have you seen or read Ted’s “potty humor” book from the Tourniquet website? Is it funny or worth getting?
TZ75- Holy Unblack Knight
- Posts : 4346
Join date : 2019-08-20
Re: Reviewing Aaron Guerra's songs in Tourniquet
by Airola Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:54 pm
TZ75 wrote:Now on a different note and subject, (because I don’t want to start a thread just for one question)...
Have you seen or read Ted’s “potty humor” book from the Tourniquet website? Is it funny or worth getting?
I haven't read it. Initially I did try to order it while I was getting the "mirror cover" version of The Epic Tracks. I went on to Facebook to ask Ted about shipping costs as the website gave me way too high shipping for both the CD and the book. He wasn't yet sure about what was going to be the weight for both, but we made some sort of a deal that I'd pay something for shipping now and would add more later when Ted gets the books if the weight gets too high.
A month or so goes by and I get the CD on mail, with some bonus merchandise with it. Then it struck me, hey the book isn't here, oh wait, I haven't been on Facebook after we made the deal. Logged in, and sure enough Ted had told me weeks ago that the package weighs too much and asked if I'd still want the book. I hadn't replied to him, and not even been on Facebook at all so he had sent the CD with a bunch of small merchandise with it.
So yeah, I messed up there and thus I don't have the book yet
I thought to get the book while ordering the new CD re-releases, but again the shipping cost became an issue for me. It would've cost me about 25 dollars more to get the book too, so I decided to pass. But I'm holding out for a hope for eventually getting it. Maybe I'll just order it as a standalone purchase some month when I don't have much else to buy.
I have no idea about its contents other than what Amazon lets me read:
https://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Loggerheads-Sordid-Summer-Kirkpatrick-ebook/dp/B084JJF2DK
If you click on the cover you'll get to read a sample of the beginning of the book.
The first chapter is quite amusing and pretty funny too, but the second chapter changes the style into this parody of old "Victorian" type of speaking (or whatever it is) and while it's a bit harder for me to follow I can't also help but think the words being read with the same voice and manner Ted is speaking in the ends of The Tell-Tale Heart and America on Crawl to China, and my capability to continue reading gets really REALLY distracted by that mental voice
Airola- Holy Unblack Knight
- Posts : 1001
Join date : 2012-02-01
Age : 41
Location : Finland
Similar topics» Just listened to these 4 TourniqueT songs back to back...
» Songs that you didn't know were cover songs when you first heard it ?
» Is ONWARD TO FREEDOM a Ted Kirkpatrick solo album or a Tourniquet album?
» Tourniquet Ark
» The Tourniquet Ark
» Songs that you didn't know were cover songs when you first heard it ?
» Is ONWARD TO FREEDOM a Ted Kirkpatrick solo album or a Tourniquet album?
» Tourniquet Ark
» The Tourniquet Ark
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum|
|
|