I’m working my way through TOURNIQUET’s entire discography, if you haven’t noticed by now. Consequently, my travels now bring me to “The Collected Works Of Tourniquet”, which is a greatest hits if you will. By the time 1996 rolled around, the group had recorded five studio albums and a live EP and “The Collected Works Of Tourniquet” does a fairly good job of summarizing the group’s career.

The collection of hits is book ended by two songs exclusive to this recording, namely “Perfect Night For A Hanging” and “The Hand Trembler”. The latter has undoubtedly been inducted into the TOURNIQUET hall of fame, while the former is mostly ignored. Either way, both tracks are much more formidable than anything found on “Vanishing Lessons”, “Carry The Wounded”, or “Crawl To China”. For the most part, two songs from each of their full-lengths were selected for inclusion, though “Vanishing Lessons” (which marked the Thrashers’ departure from Thrash) is overrepresented. Four (!) tracks from that record grace “The Collected Works Of Tourniquet,” much to my chagrin. The warm reception – that fell on TOURNIQUET – for a light, mellow tune such as “Twilight” definitely warranted inclusion, but I nevertheless don’t care for it. Ultimately, though, the song choices were either obvious or well planned. And like I said, I’d have ditched the softer stuff, but popularity asserted itself in the aforementioned case and came out on top.

On the whole, this record is a solid compendium that fulfils its purpose. This isn’t the most rewarding effort that TOURNIQUET has unleashed, though it works as a nice summation of their first six years together. Sadly, “The Collected Work Of Tourniquet” is rare due to the folding of Intense Records, but it’s not impossible to uncover. I doubt anyone, sans collectors, will go out of their way to obtain this. I like it anyway. (Online October 8, 2005)