Tournament

Years Old

Forcefield Records 2009

Brooklyn, New York's Tournament is immersed in an angry and intense urban jungle of post-hardcore musings.  Their new album, Years Old is a stern outburst of violence with moments of regret woven into their claustrophobic sound.  Walking Negative Man opens the album with guitar riffs that burn like a cigarette on a closed fist, layers of ashy noise coating them.  Distorted, angry vocals fill the music with rage though several moments of somber guitars bring a sense of stillness to song.  A faster, more energetic tempo brings Intake Controller into a stronger focus as it moves towards direct action, rather than dwelling on its' own self examination.  An anti-meldoy and cocaine-driven bass line spurt forth anger on Washcloth though the track quickly stumbles like a brawler punched in the face.  Dissonant notes rise out the blood to refocus the uncontrolled rage.  I even hear some Voivod awkwardness on Something Temporary as metallic riffs and disharmonic passages meet a rock n roll beat.  Smokelore dreams with introspective near-melodies fighting against noisy guitars for space to breath.  A meaty bassline sets the stage for swelling fury as noisy riffs once again clench and unclench as if they are preparing to strike then a searing moment of despair crawls out of the darkness painting the whole rest of the song with a feeling of regret and nostalgia.  The vocals and guitars could use a better production on them as the guitars are too noisy and low in the mix whereas the vocals sound almost digitized at time and too sound somewhat buried in the mix.  Years Old is the raging embodiment of a man fraught with anger at the world around him and yet touched by the sorrow of realization that his resentment is futile.