"Your Word Against Fire," is a very relaxing album. If something is going wrong in your life, work is too stressful, or whatever, you can pop this CD in your player, and sit back and relax. Eleven songs of soft rock. Track one, "Cake & Champagne," is a very mellow song. It starts off with mellow guitars then the rest of the band enters. Very mellow, and if you are tired the song will put you to sleep. But if you are stressed, you can relax to all Torcher tunes. Track two, "Underwater," starts off with some soft, hooky guitars that set the pace for the song. The beginning guitars reel you into the song and then you have no choice but to relax to the song. Three tracks go by before we come to "Holloman." Catchy guitar and vocal intro, and then the bass and drums enter. Four tracks roll on, before we come to the final track, "Wasted." Soft guitar intro that soon picks up to become heavier than it was. It soon hits you and makes you think, "is this going to be a hard song?" But when the rest of the band enters it mellows out and everything is back to normal.

The female vocals make a great addition to the mellow mood of Torcher. Although the CD is very well composed and the production sounds great, I would only give this CD a B. A CD that is mellow and very monotone the whole way through, could have used more hooks and a few parts where they went crazy and tried to pick up tempo just to grab your attention, and then slow it back down. But that was absent. All and all a good CD, but it could have been better.

Tora! Tora! Torrance!: Get Into It

Tori Amos: Strange Little Girls

[Issue One // July-August 1997]