Tourniquet: Американдық христиан метал тобының тарихы

American heavy metal band

Tourniquet was an American Christian metal band that formed in Los Angeles in 1990. It was founded by Ted Kirkpatrick, Guy Ritter, and Gary Lenaire. Tourniquet primarily played a mixture of thrash and progressive metal and was influenced by additional, non rock forms of music such as classical and world music. The band earned six GMA Dove Award nominations and won multiple recognitions from the readers of HM Magazine, including "Favorite Band of the 1990s" and "Favorite Album of the 1990s" for Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance (1992). They released ten studio albums, two live albums, four compilation albums, one EP, and several video releases. The last Tourniquet lineup consisted of Ted Kirkpatrick (drums) and Aaron Guerra (guitar, vocals, bass). The band disbanded after Kirkpatrick's death in 2022. Tourniquet has sold more than 300,000 albums. In addition to their use of classical music, the band is known for frequently using medical terminology in their album and song titles and lyrics. The band's 2003 release, Where Moth and Rust Destroy, features special guests Marty Friedman (formerly of Megadeth) and Bruce Franklin (of Trouble), both on lead guitar. Tourniquet's members spoke out against animal abuse and appeared in publications such as The Vegetarian Times, United Animal Nations, and Animal Agenda. The band is named for the tourniquet, "a surgical device for arresting hemorrhage by compression of a blood vessel." According to the band, a tourniquet is a metaphor for "a lifelong spiritual process by which a personal God, through the atoning blood, death, and resurrection of His only Son—Jesus Christ—can begin to stop the flow of going through life without knowing and serving our Creator. He is our Tourniquet."

Tourniquet formed in 1990 with drummer Ted Kirkpatrick, vocalist Guy Ritter, and guitarist/vocalist Gary Lenaire. Kirkpatrick previously played in the Chicago doom metal group Trouble on their Run to the Light tour. The group was one of many bands who were, at the time, affiliated with a church group called Sanctuary the rock and roll refuge in Los Angeles. Tourniquet released its first studio album, Stop the Bleeding, in 1990. It was produced by Bill Metoyer of Metal Blade Records and released by Intense Records. While it was mostly distributed to Christian bookstores, Stop the Bleeding gained some notoriety in the mainstream metal scene and is considered a notable thrash metal album. Tourniquet's style broke new ground and quickly gained them fans all over the world. Musically, the album showcased elements of 1980s speed metal with its Mercyful Fate/King Diamond influences, notably the falsetto vocals. In this lineup, Guy Ritter sang the melodic vocal parts while Gary Lenaire did the aggressive, thrash metal shouts. Session guitarist Mark Lewis played lead guitars on the album. The band was later rounded out with the addition of bassist Victor Macias and lead guitarist Erik Mendez. This version of the group is commonly known as the "classic" lineup of Tourniquet. Upon its release, Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance quickly became one of the most popular of the band's albums among Tourniquet fans. It went on to be voted Favorite Album of the 1990s by the readers of HM Magazine. As with the previous album, Metal Blade Records released Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance to the general market, with Intense Records marketing it to Christian retail. Luke Easter replaced Ritter, joining Tourniquet for the Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance tour. Prior to this Tourniquet was scheduled to play the Milwaukee Metalfest in 1993, but professed satanist Glen Benton of Deicide, the festival headliner, refused to play with a Christian band. The festival was forced to cancel Tourniquet's performance. That same year, Intense Records released Intense Live Series, Vol. 2, which includes Tourniquet's cover of the Trouble song "The Tempter". It was recorded between Ritter's departure and Luke Easter's joining of the band with the melodic vocals being handled by Bloodgood vocalist, Les Carlsen.

In 1994, Tourniquet abandoned most of the medical terminology in their lyrics, altered their style to a more accessible heavy metal/hard rock sound, and released Vanishing Lessons. Erik Mendez had left the band in 1993 after the tour for Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance, and so Vanishing Lessons was recorded by Tourniquet as a four piece band. Soon after the album's completion, Aaron Guerra joined Tourniquet as Mendez's replacement in 1994. Metal Blade Records opted to not distribute Vanishing Lessons, and Tourniquet continued to work exclusively with Intense Records until 1997. The album spawned the single "Twilight", which became the band's first CCM radio hit. A music video was shot for the song "Bearing Gruesome Cargo", and was later released on the 1995 home video Pushin' Broom. Shortly after the release of Vanishing Lessons, the band released an EP, Carry the Wounded, in 1995. Some Tourniquet fans had mixed feelings toward the EP's softer sound and the inclusion of a ballad. Later that same year, Gary Lenaire was asked to leave Tourniquet. After Lenaire's departure, he and Ritter started the band Echo Hollow during that year. In 1997, the band signed with Benson Records and released Crawl to China. Crawl to China generated divided opinions among both critics and fans because of its diverse, experimental material. A music video for the title track was released that year. Ted Kirkpatrick was known for his drum solos, and he performed them in nearly every Tourniquet concert. Many of these performances had been filmed, and in 1997 these clips were compiled on a home video release (VHS) titled The Unreleased Drum Solos of Ted Kirkpatrick. In 1998, the band recorded a number of songs in acoustic form, and released them on an album titled Acoustic Archives. This release also included a new song titled "Trivializing the Momentous, Complicating the Obvious". That same year, Tourniquet released two home videos titled Guitar Instructional Video and Tourniquet Live in California.

In 2000, Tourniquet began writing more thrash oriented songs again. They signed directly to Metal Blade Records, Kirkpatrick also announced plans to release solo albums of stoner metal and drumming over classical music. On November 10, Tourniquet announced a partnership with Kickstarter. com to fund the album's recording with fan packages and experiences for anyone who contributes toward the new album budget. On May 21, 2012, a contest concluded where a fan guessed the new album name from a series of clues. The band announced, via their Facebook page, that the album would be titled Antiseptic Bloodbath, which was released on July 19, 2012. The band re released Tourniquet Live in California on DVD that same year. In 2014, Kirkpatrick used Kickstarter to fund and release an album as The Tourniquet Ark called Onward to Freedom. Kirkpatrick was the only Tourniquet member to play on all of the songs, although other members of Tourniquet were involved, along with a number of guest musicians. On December 28, 2015, longtime vocalist, Luke Easter, left the band. In 2017, the band announced they were playing at Exodo Festival, with the lineup of Kirkpatrick on drums, Aaron Guerra and Jamey Henn on guitars, vocalist Jason Robison, and former Holy Soldier member Andy Robbins on bass guitar. A week into 2018, the band announced that the album would come out shortly. On March 17, 2018, the band announced that Deen Castronovo (Fear Factory, Ozzy Osbourne) was performing vocals for the title track of the album. The album, Gazing at Medusa, was released in 2018. Tourniquet's third compilation album, The Epic Tracks, was released in 2019. In July 2020, the band announced their 11th studio album, The Slow Cosmic Voyage to Wisdom, which would feature doom metal renditions of many old songs, as well as a few new songs. On August 19, 2022, Kirkpatrick died at age 62 of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Later, on September 28, 2022, Aaron Guerra confirmed via his Facebook page that there were no plans to continue Tourniquet after the passing of Kirkpatrick, effectively ending the band.