Review: Torque Order – 'Metal Machines'

TORQUE ORDER
'Metal Machines'
SELF-RELEASED

Just over a year on from their impressive debut 'Trust No One', Texan trio Torque Order return with a visceral new single in the form of 'Metal Machines'.

Building nicely on the old school industrial rock formula of their first album with big nods to the likes of Ministry, KMFDM, TKK, Pigface, and Rob Zombie, 'Metal Machines' is a hard and heavy blend of grooving rock, anthem vocals and subtle industrial electronics.

A short intro in the early 90s Wax Trax! Style opens up into a nasty guitar riff that recalls 'WWIII' era KMFDM, while the electronics and vocal samples hark back to the likes of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult.

This is one of those single/EP releases with a few more remixes than your standard single release giving you a bit more bang for your buck. The likes of Adoration Destroyed, Society Burning, Precision Field, Russell Rott, DJ 501, and Kounter Mehzure each add their spin to the title track's blueprints to create some very different final results. Adoration destroyed go for a more up-to-date pure industrial execution. Society Burning bring the big beats with their mix, while Precision Field dive into old school ebm territory for a gritty interpretation. Russell Rott goes takes the track in a more club friendly direction that descends unexpectedly into hard guitars. DJ 501 takes things in a harsh ebm/aggrotech direction, while Kounter Mehzure round hings off with a stripped back mix of steady beats and dirty bass.

The production has improved from the band's last release with the old school elements preserved but sounding a lot slicker and modern in it's execution.

This is a nice single with plenty of great remixes to get your teeth into. Essentially there is a bit of everything for everyone on offer here which is quite a good tactic. The band present a wide variety of remixes which allows them to play with ideas by proxy while they continue to work on the core of their sound. The end result is a very gratifying listen.  

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Review: Torque Order – 'Trust No One'

TORQUE ORDER
'Trust No One'
SELF-RELEASED

Austin, Texas based trio Torque Order are one of many emerging bands fostering the kind of gritty and unrelenting industrial rock style that put the genre on the map in the 1990s. Influenced by the likes of Ministry, TKK, Pigface and Rob Zombie they present eleven tracks of groovy industrial rock on their début album 'Trust No One'. It's not the kind of sonic formula that is aimed at reinventing the industrial wheel, but they do their best to weld some more spikes on to it.

The album proceeds at a steady pace for the most part with the electronics driving the backbone of the songs while the metallic guitars chug along and cut through for the choruses. Songs like 'Runnning', 'Believe', 'Bulletproof', 'Betray' and 'Rise' provide the most memorable cuts from the track list with their dance-friendly pace, headbanging riffs and shout-a-long choruses. The album is rounded off by the wonderfully ambient '-' which leads into the delightfully demented 'Sail' to add a little darkly comedic edge to the proceedings.

You may be forgiven for forgiven for thinking the band are a one trick pony, but the electronic work on each track brings something new out of their sound. And with the major curve ball that is the final two tracks, it is evident that the band have a lot more to give.

Production-wise the album is pretty rough and ready with it's 90s style rawness. But it isn't low-fi by any means. It's not polished, but it isn't sloppy or hastily thrown together either and benefits greatly from a great mix-down that lets all the elements in the songs move freely.

This is a very promising début, that hints at a lot more to come. The band for the most part play it safe across 'Trust No One', and stick to their chugging guitar and layered electronics formula... but when they push themselves, they are capable of producing some seriously interesting music. Hopefully they will be quick to follow this up and really try to push themselves in new ways.  

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