The current members of Tourniquet are Ted Kirkpatrick (drums), Luke Easter (vocals), and Aaron Guerra (guitar, vocals).
Former members include Gary Lenaire, Guy Ritter, Victor Macias, Erik Mendez, Steve Andino (bass) and Vince Dennis.
The band is named after a tourniquet which is a surgical device for arresting hemorrhage by compression of a blood vessel. According to the band, tourniquet is a metaphor for "a lifelong spiritual process by which a personal God, through the atoning blood, death, and resurrection of His only Son—Jesus Christ—can begin to stop the flow of going through life without knowing and serving our Creator. He is our Tourniquet."
Tourniquet was formed as a christianthrash metal band. The group was one of many bands who were, at the time, affiliated with a church group called Sanctuary - the rock and roll refuge in Los Angeles. They started out with Ted Kirkpatrick(drums), Guy Ritter (vocals) and Gary Lennaire (guitaris/vocalist).
Their first record Stop the Bleeding was produced in 1990, by Bill Metoyer of Metal Blade Records, and released by Intense Records. While it was mostly distributed to Christian bookstores, Stop the Bleeding was a notable Christian thrash metal album in its time. Tourniquet's characteristic style broke new ground and quickly gained them fans all over the world. In their early line up, Guy Ritter sang the more melodic vocal parts while Gary Lenaire did the aggressive, thrash metal shouts. The band brought forth their first single Ark of Suffering, which received some minor airplay on MTV, but was pulled down due to video shots of animal abuse. Because of the song and it's subsequent video, the band became known for its stance on animal rights.
In 1991, Tourniquet abandoned most of its 1980's metal influences and recorded a more modern album titled Psycho Surgery. On the song Spineless the band experimented with rap rock in the vein of Anthrax and Faith No More long before the style became popular later in the 1990's. Psycho Surgery showcased the classical music influences more clearly than on 'Stop The Bleeding', and the drummer’s background in the pharmaceutical industry became more apparent: many of the songs utilized medical terminology as metaphors for social/spiritual issues. On Psycho Surgery. Tourniquet continued to work with producer Bill Metoyer, and eventually signed a distribution agreement with Metal Blade Records, which released Psycho Surgery to a far wider general market audience than the band was able to reach with Stop the Bleeding. However, Intense Records still released Psycho Surgery and distributed it to Christian retail
In 1993, Tourniquet recorded what is considered their most technical and dark album, Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. Guy Ritter left the band during the recording of Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance quickly became one of the most popular of the band's albums among Tourniquet fans, and it was voted Favourite Album of the 1990's by the readers of HM Magazine. As with the previous album, Metal Blade Records released Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance to the general market and Intense Records released it to the Christian market. Luke Easter, who had formerly sung in a more pop rock oriented group, replaced Ritter, joining Tourniquet for the Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance tour. On this tour, Tourniquet was scheduled to play the Milwaukee Metalfest in 1993, but professed satanist Glen Benton of Deicide, the festival headliner, refused to play with a Christian band. The festival was forced to cancel Tourniquet's performance. This brought more publicity and notoriety to Tourniquet.
The band's sound took a sharp turn from their early thrash metal days, following the departure of original vocalist Guy Ritter. In the interim, the band recorded a "live in studio" album with Les Carlsen of Bloodgood. The following album, Vanishing Lessons was much more hard rock, but no less technical. After another EP, Gary Lennaire left the band.
The band's latest release, Where Moth and Rust Destroy, features special guests Marty Friedman, formerly of Megadeth, and Bruce Franklin, formerly of Trouble, on lead guitar (tourniquet had previously covered Trouble's The Tempter on their live EP).
Imaginary Friend
Tourniquet Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In his head, reality suspended
He's got a cast of characters
Cooped up in his mind
Whenever he wants them
Sitting in a corner admiring the
Sunbeams with an imaginary friend
Forgotten the only one
Who can take away the pain
Trading in what's real for
A figment, a cashed in life locked up
In his brain, they don't give
Diplomas from catatonic state
He bears a ton of gruesome cargo
Can't seem to equate
What is fact or fiction
Gonna blow the escape hatch
From the miserable existence
Find the Eden in his brain
The same cast fills his dreams
And his nightmares
The horrors of night seem twice
As harsh in the day
Disconnected existence
Pull the plug to ease the pain
The lyrics to Tourniquet's song "Imaginary Friend" are about a person who has created a secret world in their mind, where reality is suspended and they have an entire cast of characters waiting for them whenever they want. This person has an imaginary friend, with whom they spend time sitting in a corner and admiring the sunbeams. However, the person has forgotten that the only one who can take away their pain is themselves. They have traded in what is real for a figment of their imagination and are now living a life that is locked up inside their brain.
Furthermore, the person in the song is struggling to distinguish between fact and fiction. They are weighed down by a ton of gruesome cargo and are desperate to find a way out of their miserable existence. This person hopes to blow the escape hatch and find Eden in their brain. The same cast of characters fills the person's dreams and nightmares, making their disconnected existence even more difficult. In the end, the lyrics suggest that the only way for the person to ease their pain is to completely disconnect from their imaginary world and pull the plug.
Line by Line Meaning
He's got a secret environment locked
He has a private world in his thoughts that is closed off from others
In his head, reality suspended
He is disconnected from reality in his mind
He's got a cast of characters
He has a set of personalities in his mind
Cooped up in his mind
These personalities are trapped in his mind
Whenever he wants them
He can access these personalities at will
Sitting in a corner admiring the
He's sitting alone appreciating
Sunbeams with an imaginary friend
He has an imaginary friend with whom he does things
He frolics and plays but he's
He's having fun but
Forgotten the only one
He's forgotten the only person
Who can take away the pain
Who has the ability to relieve his pain
Trading in what's real for
He's exchanging what's true for
A figment, a cashed in life locked up
An illusion - a dream he's settled for, enclosed in his thoughts
In his brain, they don't give
His mind state isn't acknowledged by others
Diplomas from catatonic state
There are no honors for being trapped in a paralyzed condition
He bears a ton of gruesome cargo
He has a lot of severe emotional baggage
Can't seem to equate
He can't differentiate
What is fact or fiction
What is reality or his imagination
Gonna blow the escape hatch
He's going to release and free himself from his current state
From the miserable existence
From his unhappy way of life
Find the Eden in his brain
He wants to discover paradise or peace of mind within his own thoughts
The same cast fills his dreams
The same characters appear in his sleep
And his nightmares
As well as his scary dreams
The horrors of night seem twice
His bad dreams are especially gruesome
As harsh in the day
And the fear stays with him into the daytime
Disconnected existence
He's living without feeling connected to others
Pull the plug to ease the pain
He wants to end his unhappy state and remove the source of his distress
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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