TOURNIQUET - Broken Chromosomes (First Listen) 

the bridge: "men fail me, but the Son of God saves!" always gave me goosebumps

Hey Shane….thanks doing the song. The Downs Syndrome person the song is about comes from a position of broken, bruised, and beaten down from bullies at school and a violent father. Never to a point of hate or anger or wanting to kill. The conclusion to the song is he finds Jesus Christ who gives him unconditional love and power to live his life, and to overcome the hurt and pain by forgiving those that hurt him. At the end of the song, the person wins through love. ‘I’m free now because I have no pain to pass on!’

I get chills down my spine every time I listen to it. When he says he will get up and it’s like god is delivering him from it. The talent is incredible.

Rest in peace Ted Kirkpatrick

In my opinion the first three albums are masterpieces. After the lead singer Guy Ritter left the band they went down hill. Guy had such a unique voice, kind of like King Diamond at times. They also utilized Gary Lenaire (guitar) on vocals.

The drummer's father is a medical doctor. One of the reasons for so much medical imagery in the songs. The song, Broken Chromosomes, is about a boy who is mentally challenged. His father physically, emotionally and verbally abuses the boy. The father, himself, was physically abused by his father. He, then passes that abuse onto his son. The boy sees that the dad has a lot of good things going on his life. He points this out to the dad. He asks the dad why he is showing so much hate to him. The boy isn't full of rage over his abuse. He is full of pain from the treatment. To find healing, the boy turns to Jesus. Jesus provides the healing from his pain. Jesus provides the love that the boy needs in his life. The love of Jesus breaks the cycle of abuse. The boy's pain is gone because Jesus had taken the pain away and healed his soul and his mind from the abuse that had been given to him by his father. One of the posters provided you a copy of the lyrics. Carefully follow along with the lyrics as you listen to the song.

Broken Chromosomes Lyrics… I want to take my life today I don't belong here anyway My God if you can hear me now See if Your hand can reach this far You stopped playing father as soon as mom conceived The only time we touched was just before I screamed The gift that keeps on giving your father gives to me History repeats itself Now history meets me So what if I'm retarded Mentally delayed I'm sorry for annoying you but I was born this way You speak so much better Got an aerodynamic face Mega-babes and tons of friends so why show so much hate Vultures are circling again My open wounds are food for them Oh God if you will reach your hand You can deliver me from man But I'll get up I'll get up Watch me get up Men fail me... But the Son of God saves When I'm face down and I'm scared and lonely You are by my side I'm talking face on the ground My back is painted with footprints You're the only one that hears me cry I seek I find just one name by which a man can be saved And He comes before my tears can dry Now I'm not alone No I'm not alone And I'm free now cause I, I've got no pain to pass on

Almost 30 years later and this song still gives me chills.

Classical music like Beethoven and Bach were Tourniquet's main musical influence. The late Ted Kirkpatrick also spent lots of time in Thailand studying their music.

*Came for the Tourniquet tunes ...Stayed for the awesome... air guitar, air drums, air bass, and of Corse them fantastic facial expressions from you Shane!!! Love the entertaining videos myself... and all of us here appreciate the hard work and dedication from you, to be able to upload so many rarities that we can ''first listen ''...to together!*

Love me some Ted Kirpatrick and Tourniquet. One of the few good things I got from my ex. She introduced me to Tourniquet way back in '92.

Yes, PsychoSurgery is my favorite album by Tourniquet, mainly because of the song “Dysfunctional Domicile”, which I’d live to see a reaction to. Thanks for this one too. Tourniquet- in my top 3 bands of all time!

Thank U for doing another Tourniquet reaction. Agreed with Michael B, first 3 albums are incredible!!! Early progressive metal, I always felt those early albums where ahead of their times. There's an intense video for "Ark of Suffering", deals with animal rights. No other bands were doing Heavy Metal songs about fighting animal abuse.

Psycho Surgery is my Favorite by Tourniquet. fantastic band!

"You Get What You Pray For" is the first Tourniquet song I heard. Bought _Stop the Bleeding_ on strength of that single. I also picked up their turn of the Intense Live series, which I really enjoyed (Les Carlson of Bloodgood filling in on lead vocals). Not really that much of a fan until _Vanishing Lessons_

Great song, great reaction. I've been a Tourniquet fan since the first album. Please react to a newer song called Gazing At Medusa. It's a banger that features Deen Castranovo on vocals in the chorus and Chris Poland on guitar!

Awesome band, saw them in concert and it was a blast.

So, me and a lot of other christian artist from Central America did a Tribute Album, called Central Amercian Tribute to Tourniquet, I did the "Viento Borrascoso" cover, that was the last album Ted Kirkpatrick produced before his passing in August 19th 2022. I would like you to check some bands out, it has official videos and stuff.

Shane, please consider doing a first listen of Tourniquet's song "Perfect Night For A Hanging". I had been a fan for years, but lost some interest when Luke Easter took over on vocals. Although I stick to that sentiment a far as his overall metal chops go, he and the boy did an amazing song on this fast-paced, metal tune. Thanks!!

Psycho Surgery is my personal favorite album

I’ll second Jesse’s comment below. Please Shane, Ark of Suffering!!! Great reaction to this one and the previous one btw.

“So what if I’m retarded, mentally delayed...I’m sorry for annoying you but I was born this way.” Preach on, brother, preach on.

Ark of Suffering is a great one.

Broken Chromosomes is about child abuse and the trauma that arises from it in general, Shane. One of the most powerful songs ever written in their catalog, in my opinion. Unfortunately, Tourniquet is finished as a band because Ted Kirkpatrick just passed away very recently on August 19, 2022 from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable disease that causes irreversible scarring on the lungs over the past four months. Got the chance to see them play live twice (once in Denver in 1992 and once at Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, IL. Both shows were excellent.) RIP to the best drummer in Christian metal, bar none.

Never heard of them but I liked it. Singer had a Dave Mustaine thing going on.

This song... gets me every time!

im not real fimiliar with torniquet but im gonna dive in ..this one rocked pretty good

¡¡La mejor banda de thrash metal de la historia, empecé escuchando Metallica, después Megadeth y después Tourniquet y Tourniquet está a otro nivel, es la máxima evolución técnica del thrash, unos adelantados para su época, sonando de manera perfecta, la batería de Ted es increíble, los solos y riff el guitarrista es de otro planeta y además, la voz única e icónica de Guy Ritter es insuperable, es un estilo King Diamond pero mucho mejor ya que tiene un caudal de voz muy superior y también maneja perfectamente los graves, y en los agudos es simplemente lo máximo. Tiene una voz tan dúctil que parecen dos cantantes en uno y sus letras son exquisitas. Superiores a Metallica, Megadeth (del cual también soy fanático) y ni hablar del resto de bandas como Slayer, Ántrax, Testament, Kreator, etc, etc. Saludos desde Buenos Aires Argentina.

the harlot widow and the virginbride (stop the bleeding) is an epic song

I kept hearing Psycho Circus every time you said the album title. This was a good one for me...and yes, I do believe the now politically incorrect "R word" was definitely used. Very powerful tune, both musically and lyrically....

There's all kinds of likings as a Christian who loves metal.

Great song...One of my all time favorites...Great lyrics too..

Recently the founder of the band/ drummer passed away and the remaining members called it quits same as Bloodgood after their bassist/ founder also passed away about month before.

Check out their song, "Ark of Suffering"

"A Dog's Breakfast" is a banger!

CUJO! Love the t-shirt!

Sacrament's "haunts of violence" album is solid.. Brainchild's "mindwarp" ... Seventh Angel's "lament for the weary" album is a great classic too.. Antestor "omen" is killer. just stating great albums that weren't mentioned that deserve attention Demon Hunter is another great band I haven't heard mentioned. They've done some stellar work

My favorite song of Tourniquet

Love Shane face reaction

Love this song, but Luke Easter and Aaron Guerra were not on this album. Guy Ritter on vocals, Gary Lenaire and Eric Mendez on guitar, Victor Macias on bass. The best line up the band ever had, IMHO.

How about checking out a song by Brainchild "prayers of a dead man" or "telltale crime" ? They only made one album, as far as I know. The Circle of Dust version of "prayers..." is not near as good as the original by Brainchild. It's industrial metal.. and that album, "mindwarp", is a great classic with several audio excerpts from the great movie, Bladerunner :) and some creepy excerpts from George Bush sr

I like how at a point in this song the singer sound like Udo Dirkschnider from ACCEPT and Zakk Wylde. Hey check out their song THE SLAVE RING good collaboration with Mattie Montgomery 🤘🤘🤘

Just found this reaction. Check out Dysfunctional Domicile off the same album.

TourniqueT onward too freedom awesome song

Best Tourniquet album

Gotta do "acid head"

The song "search and destroy " by Philadelphia. Its a classic! Christian metal band. 1984 era..

Love that song

Antiseptic blood bath album is really good as well

You should do The Skeezix Dilemma part 1 and 2

RIP Teddy

Ain't nobody gonna breaka my stride

For Deuteronomium, the song Nazorean. What about Immortal Souls?

By the way, there is nothing wrong with the word, retarded. It describes a medical condition. It is no different than saying someone is blind. The part that gets me about those who made this a bad word is that it is many of the same people who endorsed negative eugenics to get rid of people with this affliction. Now they want to be all pious about people's feelings. At the root of this is THEIR belief, not ours, that intelligence or intellect, is the sum of a person's worth or even a part of it. Life is sacred because it is life, not because it is life with intelligence. Someone with mental retardation has different challenges than someone who doesn't but they are not less valuable as an individual. And, I kind of resent not being able to say a word because of other people's attitudes of what retardation is and their sins in devaluing them as people.

Ur that what i take from as a faith I used to be satanic but since Ted died heard they broke up afterwards

Wonderful band that sadly lost its founder Ted Kilpatrick to Cancer. So, there won’t be any more albums.

My favorite metal band ever. Another great Christian act that you should check out is One Bad Pig. Their song Spirit of Murder is awesome. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PznXdqQozTY.html

Rip Ted Kirkpatrick

You have to hear Flood band ex Tourniquet guys the song: Autopsied Atheism

RIP Ted….

Review ‘Enveloped in Python’ on Crawl to China album.

🤘🤘

We need saviour machine reaction

My favorite song being mentally handicapped

Since When was Metal ever worried about what you can and cant say? From the book of Suicidal; "If I offended you, Oh I'm sorry, but maybe you need to be offended,....".

Drawn and quarter

I dont think Guy Ritter would even think of killing even in a song. Not sure though. Guy has soul for sure. I thought that the song was from the perspective of a mentaly delayed person who some parent abused because of the disability. Not sure if someone that has down syndrome has the understanding of salvation.. .. but its about anger and forgiveness for sure.

Ha ha ha, not sure where you are getting the murder undertones. As I take it, a mentally challenged child, abused by his father, feels hopeless. He isn't threatening anyone, just yelling in pain and anguish. However, yes, he found the ability to overcome through Christ. My absolute favorite song of theirs is "Harlot Widow and the Virgin Bride". I love songs with a lot of transitions, and that one is loaded with them!

Guy Ritter was a singular talent. I have never heard a vocalist sound like he did and there may be a reason for that bc I suspect he destroyed his voice. But, man, it was so cool for those first 3 albums.

Best song ever but maybe it takes some sense to understand the obvious story

The song is entirely about forgiveness. Like Christ forgives.

This guy has no rythm and talks too much

Bloodgood ARE NOT METAL!!!!