Touché Amore has been one of those bands since the moment I heard their first album “… to the beat of a dead horse” chock full of throaty angst, fast-paced guitar riffs and blast beat styled drumming, I was hooked. Their next album “Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me” arose a more polished and melodic version of their debut album but there were more personal and emotional themes that emerged. “Is Survived by” was their third release that showed the band maturing as artists and as human beings with even more melodic following the death of the lead singer’s mother to cancer while they were on tour.
After releasing countless 7″ recordings, EPs and splits with other bands in between all of these records it brings us to their fourth and most emotional release “Stage Four” released on Epitaph Records. The entire album is about the loss of their lead singer’s mother and the relationship that they shared. Asking the questions he’ll never hear the answer to on why she came from the mid-west to California on “Palm Dreams,” “Flowers and You” is about watching his mother slowly slip away and the last song I’ll touch on “New Halloween” talks about how a year had passed and how he held onto guilt for not being there when his mother finally past. I’ll be honest it’s a great album but its content is gut-wrenching. It doesn’t help that there were events in my personal life that had happened where I had almost lost a very close friend. If there is anything to be learned from this album, I took away this: You don’t have forever, so spend as much quality time with your loved ones as possible.
The last song I’ll touch on is “Skyscraper.” This song is about the last trip he and his mother took to New York City because she had always wanted to see it. The video is below I highly recommend you check it out. While the content is very realistic, put to the music it is immensely powerful and has an energy I can’t even describe. I saw them at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia at the end of September and they were incredible. If you get a chance definitely see them live because their set rules. In the meantime check out the video and “Stage Four Below!”
–Aa
