Tourniquet (band)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Tourniquet" band – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Tourniquet
Ted Kirkpatrick, the drummer and main songwriter of Tourniquet
Background information
Also known as	The Tourniquet Ark
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Thrash metal, progressive metal, Christian metal[1]
Years active	1990–2022
Labels	Intense, Metal Blade, Benson
Past members	Guy Ritter Gary Lenaire Erik Mendez Victor Macias Vince Dennis Steve Andino Luke Easter Ted Kirkpatrick Aaron Guerra

Tourniquet was an American Christian metal band that formed in Los Angeles in 1990.^[2][3] It was founded by Ted Kirkpatrick, Guy Ritter, and Gary Lenaire. Tourniquet primarily played a mixture of thrash and progressive metal and was influenced by additional, non-rock forms of music such as classical and world music. The band 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 (1992). They released ten studio albums, two live albums, four compilation albums, one EP, and several video releases. The last Tourniquet lineup consisted of Ted Kirkpatrick (drums) and Aaron Guerra (guitar, vocals, bass). The band disbanded after Kirkpatrick's death in 2022.

Tourniquet has sold more than 300,000 albums.^[4] In addition to their use of classical music, the band is known for frequently using medical terminology in their album and song titles and lyrics.^[5][6] The band's 2003 release, Where Moth and Rust Destroy, features special guests Marty Friedman (formerly of Megadeth) and Bruce Franklin (of Trouble), both on lead guitar. Tourniquet's members spoke out against animal abuse and appeared in publications such as The Vegetarian Times, 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."^[7]