This band were recommended to me by Phil Rhodes, co-owner of Derby-based record label, Stressed Sumo Records. Good shout, mate…

Date: September 14

Venue: Rock City Basement

Torche are a beguiling conundrum. They’ll freely admit that they don’t know what they are exactly, refusing to be pigeonholed.

With their new album, Harmonicraft, to plug, the Miami four-piece launch into its first two songs, Letting Go and Kicking.

Group leader and guitarist Steve Brooks refuses to accept the metal tag, so, they throw a planetary-sized curve ball and indulge in a cornucopia of styles, ranging from doom-rock to sludge metal.

Brooks is not your archetypal noise-core frontman. Yes he has the rock posturing, the guitar-in-the-air histrionics and the obligatory sortie into the crowd, but he’s also one of only a handful of openly gay musicians in his genre, whatever genre that may be.

They play for an hour, taking the stage at the ridiculously early time of 8.30pm, and ploughing straight through their set at breakneck speed.

“We love you Noddingham!”, Brooks announces, before leaving us all still somewhat confused as to which genre they belong.