AN NCS PREMIERE: TORREFY — “STREET REAPER”

The last time we hosted a premiere from Torrefy‘s forthcoming fourth album Necronomisongs we used the album’s remarkable cover art as the jumping-off point. As you can see, it portrays the performance of a hellish orchestra, stripped of flesh but not stripped of their deathless desire to perform, and the song we premiered itself sounded like the demented revels of a devilish orchestra — fast and frenzied, brazen and baroque, and perpetually veering in a multitude of different but diabolical directions, creating an extravagant display of technical pyrotechnics and crazed yet sharply executed ebullience.

Today, as you can also see, we’re premiering another song by these unconventional Canadian black/thrashers from Necronomisongs, and this time our jumping-off point concerns the inspirations for the album tracks: Each of them is based on a favorite book of Torrefy vocalist John Ferguson.

The song we previously premiered, “Enslaved New World“, was inspired by a fantasy series called The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Before that, the band had revealed the album’s first single, “Of Wind and Worm“, along with an electrifying performance video. That song, as perhaps you might guess based on its title, was inspired by Frank Herbert‘s Dune.

And today we have a song incited by a Stephen King novel. As John Ferguson explains:

photo by John Clarke

The track, “Street Reaper“, is based off of the novel, Christine, by Stephen King. This book is tied for my favorite book of all time. Its visceral and imaginative interpretations of vehicular manslaughter really drew me in as a hyper-violence loving adolescent and kept me along for the ride with its underlying themes based around mortality, youth, and the lack of expiration date on ignorance, fear, and biases.

This novel really helped introduce to me the fact that adults were just guessing and fearing their way through life just as much as I was, perhaps even more with the larger and larger stakes they build for themselves. The best passage comes when Christine, the possessed and animate 1958 Plymouth Fury hunts down the local bully in his rodded out Camaro. The ensuing description of absolute mayhem remains my favorite chapter in any book!

photo by John Clarke

Consistent with its inspiration, the music in “Street Reaper” is indeed mayhem, but it’s not sheer chaos. Rather than a violent multi-car pileup with sheared metal and glass flying in all directions, there’s method behind this mayhem.

As the lyrics portray, the song is a “high octane hell machine”, in which the high-revving riffs pulse like pistons, and the drums likewise furiously hammer and the bass spins like the possessed machine’s full-throttle drive-train. There’s also hell-possessed fury in Ferguson‘s screams.

The idea of demonic possession is reinforced by the ways in which the song shifts gears, and angles off in different directions as the riffing and the drum patterns change. The leads are manic and mercurial, the soloing is delirious, the bass nimble and undulating, the vocals eventually roaring as well as shrieking to high heaven.

But no, as turbocharged and berserk as the song is, it’s not chaos — because this ever-spinning gyroscope of sound is so sharply executed, such a precisely machined Christine, and proudly triumphant in what it has fiendishly wrought.

TORREFY is:
John Ferguson– Vocals
Dan Laughy– Drums
Adam Henry– Guitar
Ben Gerencser– Guitar
Simon Smith– Bass

Necronomisongs is now set for release on September 27th. It includes 8 songs and 45 minutes of music. It was recorded by Torrefy and Cody Baresich at Circle A studios in Victoria BC. It was mixed by Cody Baresich and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. That cover art was made by Blackstory. The album comes recommended for fans of Vektor, Absu, Skeletonwitch, and Immortal.

Below, we’re also including the video stream of the album’s first single, “Of Wind and Worm“. The video gives you a good idea of the high-voltage electricity of Torrefy‘s stage performances, and the music is a full-throttle rush, with vocals of shattering intensity, but threaded with mood-moving melodies, both distressing and jubilant, both grievous and glorious. As icing on the cake, it’s also home to a spectacular extended guitar solo.

“Of Wind and Worm” is another sign of Torrefy‘s ability to create music that’s barbarous and yet fiendishly elegant, viscerally propulsive but also head-spinning — and quite memorable.

And of course we’re also providing a stream of the song we previously premiered, “Enslaved New World“.

For more info about the album as its release date approaches, follow Torrefy via the links below.

https://torrefy.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vBG6mPXUQGf6UsFX1qXWI
https://www.facebook.com/Torrefy
https://www.instagram.com/torrefy/