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Tournament
Swordswallower
Trip Machine Laboratories CD EP
Swordswallower is a thick towering wall of ricocheting buzz and ferocity. It will brutally rattle your auditory nerves, but it's an aural-shaking that you need to experience.
Brooklyn NY's Tournament is the kind of band you hope to see live in a small shit-hole venue mid-summer that's as humid and uncomfortable as a super-heated sauna. The songs found on Swordswallower couldn't complement the breathless heat any better. On "Traveler" and "Nightlion" the vocals sound like an extra-raspy extra-pissed Jon Reis (RFTC, The Night Marchers) while the second vocalist's venomous shouted delivery through out the EP will undoubtedly grab your attention. The duel guitar attack is like a tightening head vice on the ears, while the bass guitar's heavy buzzing fills out every vacant aural nook and cranny. Tournament's output may seem noisy and unrefined, but it's a controlled assault teeming with scorching aggression.
The opener, "Swordswallower," has a slight "Sonic Reducer" vibe, but super-charged. Tournament doesn't like to slow their pace to reflect. They throttle their sonic discharge at full speed, but when they do let up from the gas their hardcore-punk at times reminds me of underrated '90s outfits like Bob Evans and Hellbender. Both contain a raw heavy feel with those subtle undercurrents of melody, however Tournament flexes more muscle with a heavier, faster sound and this is apparent on tracks like "The Bad Word" and "Pain In Full" (that contains a blaring trumpet).
Swordswallower is going to be my summertime soundtrack for '08. Its forceful melodic thump and wallop definitely spiked the interest of this old fart.
by Fake Train
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