Torches of Fury existed for less than a year, from November 2003 to September 2004; drummer James Love, who replaced Lance Walker in June 2004, probably played fewer than a dozen shows with the band- nobody really remembers anymore. Yet so many of the people who saw them do remember the wild enthusiasm that marked their music, a viscous, chunky heavy metal blocked into beautifully explosive songs. It is our good fortune that they recorded this session before they hung it up, to leave us this happy memory of how aptly named their music was:: a fiery celebration, a furious, driving engine, a glorious battle that was never lost. This is the sound of men whose raw talent is matched only by their love for what they do.
Do it for the love. It is a mantra drilled into you by the depressing necessity of cultural distance. Behind it is the solemn knowledge that eventually the love fades, and when it does, you look back, not with regret but with pride, and forward, not with fatalism, but with hope, and with more love. You keep doing it, in Golden Axe, in Dillinger, in Insect Warfare, in Knucklescraper; in Act of God, Childman, the Truck, Coffin Grinder, and Race Against Time; at the guitar shop, at the pizza joint, at the record store. You keep doing it, and you know it's good.
credits
released August 1, 2006
Torches of Fury: Beau Beasley, Warren Hatfield, James Love
Original sessions produced by Torches of Fury
Recorded by Chris Ryan and Eric Faucette at Johnny Killed Rock-n-Roll
Post-production facilitated by Daniel Mee
Layout and design by Stuart Smith
Cover art courtesy of Trey Lavigne's torso
Photography by Jessica Raney and Chris Ryan
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