69 Chambers – Torque (2012)

Making its way from Switzerland, today we have the 69 Chambers and their sophomore full-length release “Torque”. With almost 65 minutes of catchy and well-crafted Gothic Rock with an emphasis of the rock side of things, this band delivers a quite enjoyable release that will surely grab the attention of fans of female-fronted bands.

Led by the multi-talented (and super-hot) Nina Treml, 69 Chambers does a great job in combining catchiness with groovy guitars and a very healthy sense of melody, something that bands with longer careers struggle with. The opener “Cause and Effect” features none other than Chrigel Glanzmann of Eluveitie on backing vocals, making this song very aggressive and well rounded. Nina’s vocals are quite enchanting and straight forwards, no need for any soprano crap here.

With a very similar vibe to Theatre of Tragedy’s “Musique” album, “Bing on the Flood” is one of the catchiest tracks in this release. The heavy guitars of “Naughty Naughty Naughty” make this song quite powerful and different from the first few tracks. As you can read, the band does a great job in mixing things around and delivering engaging and diverse songs. Combining a mixture of keyboards and electronic elements with distorted guitars, songs like “Anhedonia”, “Ring a Bell”, “And then there was Silence”, and “The Doom of her Power”, the band greatly appeals to a broad spectrum of listeners.

In terms of the best in this release, we have to say that the combination of very heavy sections with sweet vocal melodies on “Temple Down” makes this song one of our favorites. We also have the dark epic “Elegy” with a more emotional side to things, featuring lush piano sections and truly moving vocals. With Tommy T. Baron (from Coroner and ex-Kreator fame) handling guitar duties and Diego Rapacchietti on drums, this band has enough fire power to immediately change from a ballad to a full-fledged Metal anthem without breaking a sweat.

If you are looking for something well-crafted and with a different take on the whole female-fronted approach, “Torque” is clearly the release for you. The band delivers 14 tracks of perfectly balanced music that will appeal to any metal head and even some ‘mainstream’ people.

Release: April 27th, 2012

Country: Switzerland