Christian metal, also known as white metal, Jesus metal or heavenly metal, is heavy metal music distinguished by its Christian themed song lyrics and the dedication of the band members to Christianity. Christian metal is typically performed by professed Christians, principally for Christians and is often produced and distributed through various Christian networks.
Tourniquet was an American Christian metal band that formed in Los Angeles in 1990. The band was founded by Ted Kirkpatrick, Guy Ritter, and Gary Lenaire. Tourniquet primarily performed a mixture of thrash, progressive, and neoclassical metal, and was influenced by additional, non-rock forms of music such as classical and world music. It earned six GMA Dove Award nominations and won multiple recognitions from the readers of HM Magazine, including "Favorite Band of the 1990s" and "Favorite Album of the 1990s" for Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance (1992). The band released ten studio albums, two live albums, four compilation albums, one EP, and several video releases. Tourniquet has 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.
Stop the Bleeding is the debut studio album by the American Christian metal band Tourniquet. It was originally released on Intense Records in 1990. A remastered version was released independently on Pathogenic Records in 2001, which was later re-released in 2011. Retroactive Records released a Collector's Edition remaster on June 26, 2020. The remasters include updated artwork, expanded album booklets, and bonus tracks.
Psycho Surgery is the second studio album by the American Christian metal band Tourniquet. It was originally released on Intense Records and Metal Blade Records in 1991. A remastered version was released on Pathogenic Records in 2001 as Psychosurgery and includes revised artwork, an expanded album booklet, and bonus tracks that include live versions of songs featuring then-lead vocalist Luke Easter as well as demos; the title was changed since co-founder and drummer Ted Kirkpatrick always felt that it should have been just one. Retroactive Records released a Collector's Edition remaster on June 26, 2020, retaining the original album title and including an extended booklet as well as different bonus tracks. Considered by critics to be Tourniquet's most balanced of the band's first three albums, Heaven's Metal fanzine ranked Psycho Surgery Christian metal's second-best album of all time.
Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance is the third studio album by the American Christian metal band Tourniquet. It was originally released on Intense Records in 1992 to the Christian market and later released on Metal Blade Records in 1993 to the secular market. It is the last Tourniquet album to feature vocalist Guy Ritter, who left the band after the recording of the album. It was independently re-released on Pathogenic Records in 2001 with digital remastering, two bonus live tracks from the 2000 Dutch Flevo Festival featuring then-lead vocalist Luke Easter, and new cover art. Retroactive Records released a Collector's Edition remaster on June 26, 2020 with the original cover art, an expanded album booklet, and four different bonus tracks. Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance was voted as the "Favorite Album of the 1990s" by readers of HM Magazine. In 2010, HM Magazine ranked it #23 on the Top 100 Christian metal albums of all-time list.
Vanishing Lessons is the fourth studio album by the American Christian metal band Tourniquet. It was originally released on Intense Records in 1994. It was the first Tourniquet album to feature then-lead vocalist Luke Easter, who joined the band in 1993. The songs "Bearing Gruesome Cargo," "Acid Head" and "K517" were included on the Tourniquet/Mortification Collector's Edition CD Single in 1994; the disc also featured tracks with Ted Kirkpatrick talking about Tourniquet and included material from the Australian Christian metal band Mortification's Live Planetarium and Blood World releases. A different version of "My Promise" was included on Tourniquet's extended play Carry the Wounded, and a music video for "Bearing Gruesome Cargo" was included on the band's VHS tape Pushin' Broom in 1995. This album was later bundled with 1992's Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance and released on KMG Records in 2000. Vanishing Lessons was independently re-released on Pathogenic Records with digital remastering, bonus tracks, and new artwork in 2004.
Luke Easter is an American singer and songwriter. Before becoming a solo artist, he was the lead singer of the Christian metal band Tourniquet.
Gary Lenaire is an American musician who primarily performs thrash metal and speed metal. Lenaire is best known for his work in Tourniquet, though later he began to work for BOSS amps and interviewed musicians, including Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, John 5, and Rudy Sarzo. Lenaire was nominated for six GMA Awards, and received Heaven's Metal Magazine's "guitarist of the year" award between 1994 and 1996.
Vengeance Rising was an American Christian thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California. Fronted by vocalist Roger Martinez, they originally formed as Vengeance in 1987, but changed their name in 1989 to avoid conflict with another band from the Netherlands. Band members Larry Farkas, Doug Thieme, Roger Dale Martin, and Glen Mancaruso left following Once Dead and formed the band Die Happy. Roger Martinez stayed on to record two more studio albums, but aside from him, Vengeance Rising's lineup changed for each subsequent album. While the group was a ground breaking Christian metal band, today Vengeance Rising is known for vocalist Martinez's turning from Christianity to Satanism to atheism. AllMusic describes Vengeance Rising's history as "one of the most entertaining and bizarre stories in the realm of heavy metal."
Bloodgood was an American Christian metal band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1983. By 1988, Bloodgood represented one of the four largest Christian metal bands alongside Barren Cross, Leviticus, and Whitecross.
Frontline Records was a Christian rock record label, founded in 1986 by James Kempner in Santa Ana, California. The label focused primarily on modern rock, rap, dance-pop and hip-hop. The label closed in the early 1990s, and then resurfaced in 2010 to digitally re-release its music catalog.
The Collected Works of Tourniquet is the first compilation album by the American Christian metal band Tourniquet. It was released on Intense Records in 1996. The album features fourteen songs: eleven songs are taken directly from the band's previous releases, though "The Skeezix Dilemma" has been edited in that it uses the majority of the studio recording and segues into the live version's ending from Intense Live Series, Vol. 2 (1993), and it introduces two new songs, "Perfect Night for a Hanging" and "The Hand Trembler".
Live Planetarium is the first live album and fifth release of Australian Christian extreme metal band Mortification, released in 1993. It contains live versions of material from the band's three previously released studio albums, Mortification (1991), Scrolls of the Megilloth (1992), and Post Momentary Affliction (1993), as well as two new songs, "Symbiosis" and "Time Crusaders", and a cover of "Black Snake" by American Christian metal band Bloodgood. A video version of Live Planetarium was released on VHS in 1994 and later on DVD in 2006. A segment on Mortification's history, from the video of Live Planetarium, was included on the Tourniquet/Mortification Collector's Edition CD Single in 1994; the disc also contained songs from Mortification's Blood World album and American Christian metal band Tourniquet's Vanishing Lessons album. A studio recording of "Symbiosis" was included on Blood World. Soundmass released a reissue of Live Planetarium in 2019 on vinyl with new cover art and on CD in 2020 with the studio version of "Time Crusaders" as a bonus track; the track "Black Snake" was removed from the reissues.
Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm is the sixth studio album by the American Christian metal band Tourniquet. It was released on Metal Blade Records in 2000. The title track includes Steve Rowe of the Australian Christian metal band Mortification as a guest vocalist and the song "The Skeezix Dilemma Part II " is a sequel to "The Skeezix Dilemma" from Tourniquet's 1992 album Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. This album marks the return to the band's neo-classical technical thrash style of metal.
Seventh Avenue was a Christian metal band from Wolfsburg, Germany, formed in 1989. Consisting of guitarist/vocalist Herbie Langhans, guitarist Florian Gottsleben, bassist Markus Beck, and drummer Mike Pflüger, Seventh Avenue played a hybrid style of speed and power metal with a focus on melodies. They released six albums and two EPs.
Ted Kirkpatrick was an American musician and songwriter, best known for his work with the American Christian thrash metal band Tourniquet. Primarily a drummer, Kirkpatrick was the principal songwriter for the band, and played other instruments as necessary.
Die Happy was an American Christian rock band. The group was formed in 1990 when Vengeance Rising members Larry Farkas, Doug Thieme, Glen Mancaruso, and Roger Dale Martin split the band, citing unrest with that band's front man and vocalist, Roger Martinez. They hired Robyn Kyle Basauri, formerly of Jaguar, as a vocalist and he officially joined the band after the release of their eponymous debut.
Larry Farkas is an American guitarist who primarily performs thrash metal. He was a member of Christian bands Vengeance Rising, Deliverance, Holy Soldier, and Once Dead, many of which he started.
Guy Ritter is an American musician who primarily performed thrash metal and speed metal. Ritter is best known for his vocals in the Christian metal band, Tourniquet.
Bill Metoyer is an American record producer who has recorded with Slayer, Deliverance, Hirax, Morbid Angel, Trouble and Tourniquet. He has worked at Metal Blade Records for several years as house producer and currently works as A&R. He also works with Alpha Omega Management as A&R as well. Metoyer formed Skull Seven Productions.
