Tourniquet

Tourniquet is a Christian metal band that was formed in 1989 by Ted Kirkpatrick, Guy Ritter and Gary Lenaire in Los Angeles, California. The band primarily performs a mixture of thrash, neoclassical and progressive metal, and is influenced by additional, non-rock forms of music such as classical and world music. It has earned six GMA Dove Award nominations and won multiple recognitions from the readers of HM Magazine, including "Favorite Band of the 1990's" and "Favorite Album of the 1990's" for Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. It has released several studio albums, one compilation album, one EP, one acoustic album, five video releases and three DVDs, and sold more than 300,000 albums. In addition to its use of classical music, the band is known for frequently using medical terminology in its album and song titles and lyrics.
Tourniquet's early albums are technical thrash metal and are characterized by dark atmosphere. The song writing is technically precise, and drummer Ted Kirkpatrick is known to play the guitar parts himself when he thinks that the other members' playing isn't precise enough. Kirkpatrick's drumming incorporates poly-rhythms and peculiar, technical patterns. Many Tourniquet songs are said to include more guitar riffs than most bands write in their entire career. Their first album is influenced by 1980's speed metal, but on later releases the band began incorporating more classical music in their songwriting, most notably on the albums Psycho Surgery and Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. This is mostly due to Ted Kirkpatrick's role as the main songwriter. Kirkpatrick cites Beethoven, Bach, and other classical composers as some of his primary musical influences. While there are some progressive elements on Pathogenic, such as on "The Skeezix Dilemma", their later releases Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm and Where Moth and Rust Destroy have more marked progressive metal influences.
Tourniquet's lyrical influences span a wide range; ranging from Old Testament narrative, to medical allegories, to Edgar Allan Poe type descriptive horror. Many Kirkpatrick-penned lyrics incorporate medical terminology. Tourniquet has also dealt with unique social issues as well. "Ark of Suffering" from their very first release, Stop the Bleeding, generated a lot of attention by addressing animal abuse. "Ruminating Virulence" (from Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance) discusses the severely disabled. "Twilight" (from Vanishing Lessons) addresses the neglect of the elderly. All of these topics are addressed from a Biblical perspective.
Due to the band's worldwide popularity, Tourniquet has performed in the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Brazil and Puerto Rico. Their music has received notice in the mainstream media, as well as the CCM market. The music video for "Ark of Suffering" received airplay on MTV, and garnered attention for its stance on animal abuse. Tourniquet has continued to take a very public stance on this issue, and so have been interviewed about it in magazines such as Vegetarian Times, Journal of the United Animal Nations, Animal's Agenda and by PETA. Some critics have described them as being more proficient than many of their counterparts, and the band members have appeared in many music magazines. For example, Kirkpatrick has been featured on Modern Drummer, Drums, and Aaron Guerra has been interviewed in Guitar World and Guitar for the Practicing Musician.
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."

R.I.P. Ted Kirkpatrick: May 22, 1960 - August 19, 2022