Tourniquet (band)

Tourniquet (band)

Tourniquet is a Christian metal band that was formed in 1989 by Ted Kirkpatrick, Guy Ritter and Gary Lenaire in Los Angeles, California, USA. They are known for incorporating elements of thrash, neo-classical and progressive metal into their music. They have earned six GMA Dove Award nominations and won multiple recognitions from the readers of HM Magazine, including "Favorite Band of the 1990s" and "Favorite Album of the 1990s" for Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. They have released seven studio albums, one compilation album, one EP, one acoustic album, five VHS releases and three DVDs. They have sold more than 300,000 albums. One of the band's trademarks is the incorporation of classical music into their guitar solos. They also frequently use medical terminology in their album and song titles as well as their lyrics.

The current Tourniquet lineup is Ted Kirkpatrick (drums), Luke Easter (vocals), and Aaron Guerra (guitar, vocals). Kirkpatrick has continuously achieved top rankings in polls for the best metal drummers in the world. The band's 2003 release, Where Moth and Rust Destroy, features special guests Marty Friedman, formerly of Megadeth, and Bruce Franklin, formerly of Trouble, on lead guitar. Tourniquet are outspoken on issues of animal abuse, and have appeared in publications such as The Vegetarian Times and United Animal Nations and Animal Agenda.

The band is named for the tourniquet, "a surgical device for arresting hemorrhage by compression of a blood vessel." According to the band, a tourniquet is a metaphor for "a lifelong spiritual process by which a personal God, through the atoning blood, death, and resurrection of His only Son—Jesus Christ—can begin to stop the flow of going through life without knowing and serving our Creator. He is our Tourniquet."