Tournament 'Years Old' CD

“Tournament tore out of the gate last year with the EP Swordswallower, five Bl’ast-biting rippers that nodded vaguely to mathy ’90s bands like Karp and Unwound as they stormed toward the pit, and let me tell you, they made a fan out of me. I practically swallowed my eyeballs every time I saw this band live. Years Old, their debut full-length on Richmond, VA’s Forcefield Records, finds the Brooklyn quartet getting heavier and slower but certainly no less destructive as they veer toward a sound that might best be described as metallic post-punk. The complex, often brilliantly discordant guitar work is complemented by a thunderous rolling bass that occasionally surges up from the bottom to weave through the melody almost like a third guitar. Vocals are in the vein of Louisville ’80s legends Squirrelbait, an agonized, throat-shredding howl that rides high and hard above the raging battle below. For me, the more blistering tracks like “Big Box Opportunity,” “Intake Controller,” and especially “Snuff News,” hot with feedback squalls and driven screaming forward almost to its knees by the relentlessly propulsive rhythm section, are the real standouts, butt fans of more modern, Melvins-weaned bands like Tombs and crust monsters Kylesa will dig lead (rhymes with “dead”)-heavy atmospheric tracks like the instrumental “From the Mouths,” and the deeply fucked-up “Ice Castles,” which cascades like an aural translation of Man Ray’s Dust Breeding. Now that this album has liquefied my eyeballs, they’ll go down so much easier at the show.”— Polly Watson // High Times Magazine //

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