Tournament
www.myspace.com/tournamenttournament
RELEASES
180 gram LP w/ digital download encased in custom die-cut packaging
CD in 100% recycled digi-pak with matte finish
REVIEWS
“late 80s/ early 90’s Indie Noise rock is making a big comeback to my ears and with Tournament they have the love of bands like Jesus Lizard, Surgery and Helmet with a bit of Sabbath like groove moments thrown in just to make it all the more of a kick ass sound. Also if you remember bands like Green Magnet School, Guzzard and Janitor Joe then you got a very good cross reference on what this band is doing the manic guitar, vocals just spewing out anger and the drums and bass just looking to be loud dirty and nasty. This band would have be Subpop, Touch and Go or SST golden boys back in the day. There not really more to this release other then it makes me remember want Rock Bands cared about making creative foreward thinking track that werent 3 :30 4/4 beat based commerical fodder. GET THIS and learn your indie properly…” – Absolute Zero Media
“Tournament successfully marries the slow burn of Houdini-era Melvins with the swing of Drive Like Jehu. The band imbues its material with a seething, rumbling tone. As on debut EP Swordswallower, the songs drip noise, with shrieking guitars and cacophonous vocals. Now they’re slower and even dirtier.
The production on Years Old (Forcefield, 2009) pushes levels far into the red, so much that the album feels coated in a grainy sheen. This harms the music somewhat, with blurry guitars, muddied drums, and buried vocals. Yet questionable production doesn’t obviate the power of these songs. The band members are more than capable musicians, handling diverging tempos and rhythms with ease. “Smokelore” sounds like Young Widows, with a slightly delayed guitar line over throbbing bass and a skull-smashing pace. It’s squalid, surly, and shifts between upbeat and droning tempos.
Tournament’s secret weapon is bassist Ryan Kelly. His forceful performances form the backbone to most of the songs. He meshes brilliantly with drummer Jordan Lovelace to erect a towering wall upon which guitarists Montana Masback and Sean Kraft paint aural screeds. These guys seamlessly sew their influences together to create something novel. Now if they could just work on those nondescript vocals, Tournament would really be onto something.” – Casey Boland // Invisible Oranges
“The latest release from Forcefield Records is “Years Old”, the debut full-length from New York’s Tournament and the perfect follow-up to last year’s killer “Swordswallower” EP. This material is perhaps coming from a little more of a “noise rock” base, loaded with absolutely awesome, hammering basslines and bursts of quirky riffing, while the shouting/yelling vocals fall a little farther back in the mix and fight their way forth through the instrumentation. They’re really able to transition effortlessly from caustic, noisy textures and surging feedback to energetic rhythms alongside more restrained riffing that flirts with darker atmospheres (check out the amazing “All This Light”, which is probably the band’s finest offering to date) and a little subtle melody here and there. And then there are the again unexpected little “stoner rock” runs in “Big Box Opportunity” to add yet another dimension to the band’s rather diverse approach. An excellent recording certainly plays in a role in how badass the bass presence is throughout, keeping the tones warm and natural while balancing the mix so you can always hear everything that’s going. Combine all of this with oddly catchy songwriting and it makes for an extremely well-focused 10 tracks in 32 minutes. I’m once more left looking forward to hearing more from these guys. Good stuff…
Tournament “All This Light” (excerpt)
The items are listed as pre-orders in the Forcefield Records store, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore, so orders should be shipping now. And the vinyl comes with a download card, which is the way it should be! Awesome…” – Andrew // Aversionline
“Tournament
Years Old (Forcefield Records)
4 out of 5 pot leaves
“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 // September 2009 issue
TOUR
Upcoming full US tour this October
