Tora! Tora! Torrance!

A Cynic's Nightmare (2003)

Jesse Raub

This CD continues to blow me away. The first time I had heard of the band, they were opening for The Killing Bottle during their last performance. !TTT! ripped up the stage with their semi-garage rock sound and full power rock n' roll God attitudes. I knew I had to have their CD when it came out.

The opening riff to this CD literally reaches down my pants, grabs my balls, and hangs me upside down. That's how gripping it is. The best part is, the CD never relents. Every song is just as powerful as the last, sucking you deeper into the conumdrum that is Tora! Tora! Torrance!

The basslines are flawless. Basic riffs are laden with driving anchors and dancing patterns to showcase Travis' all encompassing bass mastery. Sam and Jon deliver some of the craziest chainsaw guitar riffs switching from power chords to vitrual appreggios to spacey high flying lines on psychadelic jam tracks "Sapphire Jungle" and "I Thought This Was A Punk Show." Jesse's drumming is perhaps some of the most progressive drumming I've heard out of a young band in a long time. The beats are all driving and the fills dipslay true technical talent, all while maintaining an interesting symbiotic relationship with the guitars. Never once does the drumming seem slightly out of place. And to top it off, Nick's semi-monotone sassy snarl floats above the rest of the music, finishing it off like the sweetest cherry on a bowl of ice cream.

In this album, transitions are flawless, and the first time I listened to it all the way through, I had a hard time remebering where each song ends and starts. In fact, tracks 2-4 all blend together without break to provide non-stop three song rockfest in my stereo. The key element to this CD is that every song is entirely unique, yet carries a very distinct Tora! Tora! Torrance! sound.

If you don't already have this CD, you're a fool. Don't make me hunt you down and force this disk down your throat.

"We don't read the books, we write them."