Torpor's Viscous and Postmodern Sludge Dooms it All: Stream "Rhetoric of the Image" Now

September 18, 2019

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The post-metal, sludge, and doom intersection can be a wild and tumultuous one. Each three subgenres ask for substantial saturation and groove — metal’s “sheer heft” so to speak — while also demanding idiosyncrasy and subtly complex song structures. There’s a method to the madness, and somehow mastering all three madnesses must, naturally, take a mad set of minds. And so comprises London-based trio Torpor, a band steeped in the etherality of post-metal, the thick goop of sludge, and the dirge of doom, all at once. Does this sound like a recipe for sonic overload? Well, yes actually, but in the best way imaginable: the band’s latest release Rhetoric of the Image hit shelves Friday, and it’s an overwhelming behemoth of moving noise and noisy movement. We’ve got an early full stream for you right now below. This one is worth sitting down for.

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The most striking thing about Rhetoric of the Image is not the primitive, harsh undertones of its execution, but the actually quite eloquent narrative Torpor weaves with tools of such brutality. The album’s five songs melt together like butter, almost to the point that you’ll lose track of which track you’re on — being “lost” in an album is something we’re all familiar with, and Rhetoric of the Image hides nothing about its actual intention to do just that. Torpor wants you to sink into their music, not just ingest it, and perhaps it’s only this way that the post-metal/sludge/doom crossover can actually work. The band’s atmospherics are superb, to say the least, and range from crystal-clear piercings of your mind to the abstract jet-engine roar that blanks your brain. Under that spell, Torpor then crushes the earth to absolute fucking dust, and all you can do is sit back and hear it all unfold.

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Rhetoric of the Image releases Friday. Pre-orders available via the band’s Bandcamp. Vinyl coming via Truthseeker Music (UK), Sludgelord Records (UK), Moment of Collapse Records (DE), Smiths Food Group (NL), and Medusa Crush Rcordings (CAN).

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