The follow-up to the Sunshine State doom-poppers' stellar 2015 effort
Restarter,
Admission delivers pummeling delights and underscores
Torche's reputation for striking a winning balance between might and brevity. Their fifth studio long-player, the 11-track set doesn't veer too far from the formula the group set out to perfect in 2005 with the release of their eponymous debut. Combining combustive beats and face-melting blasts of doom, sludge, and stoner metal-worthy riffs with soaring, shoegazey melodies,
Admission feels both punitive and uplifting; it's a stentorian call to arms that uses the sonic template set forth by bands like
Earth and
Sunn 0))), but tempers the acrid smoke and hellfire with clarion blasts of icy blue water. Commencing with the one-two punch of "From Here" and "Submission" -- the former a short, controlled burst of damaging hail and the latter a hypnotic, yet no less propulsive two-chord workout --
Admission never really lets up. The crunchy,
Zeppelin-esque "Slide" is a beast; the majestic title track deftly weaves elements of motorik post-punk and stadium-ready alt-rock into its sonorous embrace; and the widescreen closer, "Changes Come," suggests what
Guided by Voices would have sounded like had
Robert Pollard ingested as much
Black Sabbath as he did
the Beatles and
the Who.
Torche can get dirty as well, as evidenced by the gnarly,
Alice in Chains-meets-
Mastodon attack of "Extremes of Consciousness" and the scorching, aptly named "Inferno," but for the most part
Admission administers seismic confections that vary in sweetness but always satisfy. ~ James Christopher Monger