Description
Psycho Surgery is the sophomore album by the American thrash/progressive metal band Tourniquet, released on Intense Records in 1991, a division of Frontline Music Group releasing FMG’s industrial/metal output. Also released by Metal Blade Records in the mainstream music market. The album was recorded by Bill Metoyer (a.k.a. Gordon Shumway) at Asaph in Costa Mesa, at Mixing Lab B in Garden Grove, and at Hammer Sound in Chatsworth, California; with Metoyer and the band producing. Mixed by Metoyer at Mixing Lab B. The album was voted as “Favorite Album of the Year” by the readers of HM Magazine.
On this album the band’s line up consisted of Guy Ritter (vocals and keyboards), Gary Lenaire (lead and rhythm guitar, vocals), Erik Mendez (lead and rhythm guitar), Victor Macias (bass and vocals), and Ted Kirkpatrick (drums), forming the quintet that is known as Tourniquet’s classic line up. The hip-hop group P.I.D. performs at the beginning of “Spineless” featuring vocals by Barry “G” and Fred “Doug Tray” and with K-Mack doing the sampling.
Psycho Surgery found this band playing as a five-member band for the first time and they really bent creativity in metal in new directions that have still not been matched. Nobody has ever sounded like this band. I mean, Between the Buried and Me and maybe System of a Down are the closest in stretching creative boundaries. You almost had to pull out a medical dictionary to understand their lyrics. Standout song would have to be the epic «Broken Chromosomes», which is a touching song about mistreated kids that are mentally handicapped. Chilling song. [Doug Van Pelt, HM]
Tourniquet follows up its critically-acclaimed debut album with another superior dose of creative, complex speed metal. Much like the ground-breaking ‘Sanity Obscure‘ album by Believer released earlier this year, this album can stand up to any of its kind in mainstream heavy metal. The instrumentation of drummer Ted Kirkpatrick, guitar shredders Gary Lenaire and Erik Mendez, and the solid bass playing of Victor Macias is as tight as a clenched fist, and the vocals of Guy Ritter are projected with strength and clarity.
The band that wrote about animal abuse on its debut album once again shows that metal musicians aren’t Neanderthal idiots.
Medical terminology and theological exposition are thrown out with purposeful ease. «Broken Chromosomes», a song about a mistreated child with mental retardation, is performed with all the intensity and passion of a person familiar with the pain of the songs lyrics. The cries of “You hurt me! You walked on me” and “You only hurt me because he hurt you,” are haunting and insightful. The lyrics go on to reveal the healing that the Son of God can bring. “I’m not alone, and I’m free now, cause I’ve got no pain to pass on.”
«Spineless», the thrash/rap tune with guest rappers P.I.D., bursts with energy and features some great riffing reminiscent of the first Vengeance album; and the title cut has a great chorus hook, which might give the band as much radio success as last year’s «You Get What You Pray For». [Doug Van Pelt, CCM, September 1991]
> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/psycho-surgery-collectors-edition/1521963859)
CD tracklist:
01. Psycho Surgery – 4:14
02. A Dog’s Breakfast – 4:27
03. Viento Borrascoso (Devastating Wind) – 3:06
04. Vitals Fading – 2:46
05. Spineless (feat. P.I.D.) – 5:12
06. Dysfunctional Domicile – 5:01
07. Broken Chromosomes – 5:21
08. Stereotaxic Atrocities – 4:21
09. Officium Defunctorum – 6:26
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Intense Records. The album was digitally remastered and independently re-issued on CD in 2001 with bonus tracks and new cover artwork. (The rerelease is titled “Psychosurgery” as one word instead of two since Ted Kirkpatrick always felt that it should have been just one.) Available at Bandcamp: https://tourniquet.bandcamp.com/album/psychosurgery
A full-page advertisement for various releases on Frontline’s metal label Intense Records, including Tourniquet’s Psycho Surgery, was featured in the April 1992 issue of CCM Magazine.
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