Tourniquet Stop The Bleeding (Color Vinyl) vinyl on Retroactive Records is the 1990 debut album from the Christian thrash metal band pressed on colored wax, a record that the CMR Top 100 Christian Metal Albums of All Time placed at number five across the entire genre.
Tourniquet Stop The Bleeding (Color Vinyl) vinyl and Its Place in the Genre
The CMR ranking at number five all-time is not a minor accolade in a niche genre: it represents decades of collectors and listeners returning to this record and placing it consistently at the top of the conversation about what Christian metal produced at its best. The album arrived at a moment when the genre was developing its identity, and Tourniquet’s approach, which combined genuine thrash metal technique with a lyrical framework rooted in their faith, gave the record a specific character that held up over time. This is not a nostalgia item. It is a record that earned its standing through repeated listening and consistent collector attention.
Tourniquet and the Debut
Tourniquet formed in the late 80s and released Stop the Bleeding in 1990 as a debut that made an immediate impact on the Christian metal scene. The band’s approach was heavier and faster than most of what was operating in the space at the time, and the album demonstrated that technical thrash and a faith-based lyrical framework could coexist without either one compromising the other. The debut album position, combined with the genre ranking, makes this a foundational record for anyone building a serious Christian metal shelf.
The Retroactive Colored Pressing
Retroactive Records has made a practice of bringing Christian metal back catalog to vinyl for a collector audience that has followed these bands for decades. Stop the Bleeding on color vinyl is the configuration that separates the collection copy from the listening copy. The 1990 debut from a band ranked this highly in the genre does not come up in clean colored vinyl form regularly. For the Christian metal collector, this is the pressing that belongs at the front of the Tourniquet section on the shelf.
