Torous – Single Reviews + Interview

Once again my friends, the power of the Internet has made it possible for me to connect with more bands! This time round it’s Torous from sunny Birmingham UK. Get the fuck in, more Brits!

Frontman Marc Malone contacted me on Twitter asking if I could check out his bands material and run it through the old MoshNet school of scrutiny, obviously I was game and these dudes rock.

Torous have labelled themselves a celtic hard rock band which immediately got me interested, I love niche genres they’re so fucking cool. Alestorm, Nightwish, even Rammstein to an extent with their heavy industrial sound all have that little bit more to give, and Torous are the same. They have that unique flair that lets them stand out from the crowd you know? And personally I fucking love it.

So lets talk about some tunes…

Official artwork for “Tolerate X”

Torous have three singles currently on their Soundcloud (which I’ll leave a link to at the bottom) and they’re all top class fucking bangers, like seriously top notch.

First, We’ve got Tolerate X a beautiful display of huge meaty heavy metal riffs and melodic vocal work! Honestly, if Iron Maiden and Disturbed had a baby this is what you get. It’s fucking godly! This song kicks so much ass, at 2:28 when that solo kicks in with those mental drum fills all I wanted to do was just let loose and embrace the head bang. I want to see these guys live at some point just to go wild at this song, lads get your asses up north!!

Official artwork for “Crow Road”

The second single we’ve got is Crow Road. This is where you really start to understand what the lads mean by Celtic hard rock.  The intro surprises you starting off with an upbeat mandolin melody and then BOOM the guitar tears off your face, so fucking heavy. Crow Road, like I mentioned earlier really highlights Torous’s niche genre, capturing those Celtic sounds in the riffs and just improving on it by adding some solid heavy metal shred. Big ups to the lads on making such a unique sound, it’s absolutely flawless.

Last but by no means least is Feed The Fire.

Official Artwork for “Feed The Fire”

Feed The Fire, In comparison to the other two tracks starts of much slower and more melodic, relying heavily on Marc’s vocal work and the less heavy, but more sinister guitar tone. Feed The Fire again is one of those mash uppy type songs (copyright that shit) I’m hearing elements of Sabbath, Dio, Avenged and you’ve got drum fills to rival Joey fucking Jordison. I want to hear more from Torous in the very near future, and these lads have got what it takes to play along side some of the big boys. I expect to see them on the on some of the smaller stages at Download or Reading + Leeds in the next few years I shit you not. All this talent has to be shared.

Myself and frontman Marc also had a little chat about the upcoming single “Sovereign Son” which will be released in January and the direction the band are going in.

Tell us a little bit more about the new single Sovereign Son, are we staying heavy cause we love the heavy? 

Album artwork for upcoming single “Sovereign Son”

“Sovereign Son” will remain heavy for sure. In some ways as heavy, just a different sort of heavy, more like our first single “Crow Road” where it incorporates a more melodic, Celtic heaviness. Its definitely a Live song as we’ve seen recently.

 You added unique instruments like the Mandolin in Crow Road will we see anymore instruments included in Sovereign Son that are more attracted to your Celtic Hard Rock genre? 

In Sovereign Son it will have a similar sound in style to the Mandolin but it won’t use that instrument (or any others similar) in this particular track. For sure tho – it will make a return.

Who do you take inspiration from musically, are there specific bands or musicians out there that you worship?

Honestly I try not to put any musicians on a pedestal, as we are just humans playing on planks of wood (a stage) at the end of the day, so there are no musicians I worship as such, however I definitely take great inspiration from the likes of James Hetfield (Metallica), Sully Erna (Godsmack), Adam Jones (Tool), Maynard James Keenan (Tool) and Marie O Brennan (Clannad).

You mentioned to me you’re planning on playing a festival in 2015 along side Status Quo, tell us more?

The festival is Lechlade Festival in Gloucestershire in May. Quo are the headliners amongst many great bands, and we are happy to be a part of it. We don’t know much as of yet so please keep to the facebook and website for updates.

If you had to pick a UK festival to play which one would you choose and why?

If I could choose, it’d be Download specifically for the diversity.  Our music is heavy, it is also very melodic and in some cases experimental and I think diverse audiences (those that like heavy and calmer rock/metal) would all appreciate it.

After the release of the new single and your tour plans come into effect, when do you think you’ll start writing songs again? Should we expect an EP or even a debut album anytime soon?

We are constantly writing, in the band and I am at home. We do plan to have some bigger things in the works with an EP in April/May and tour throughout the summer (with more festivals) so keep eyes and ears open for that. After this single is released we feel it’s time to produce that body of work, as we are still fans of the EP/Album format. The batch of songs we have so far are out of this world good! (If I may say so?) So 2015 is gonna be a fantastic year and we can’t wait to show you what we can do. People haven’t seen anything yet.

Time to wrap things up here dudes…

If you haven’t already, fucking check out Torous over at their official website. Check out their singles for FREE on Soundcloud and make sure to like them up on Facebook, and give them a follow on Twitter. They’re a solid bunch of musicians who I believe have a very bright future ahead of them, all the best for the new year lads!!

Luke (@MosherLuke)