Thou- Summit

Offical Website
Released: Summer 2010
Release Type: Full Length
Label: Gilead Media (CD), Southern Lord (upcoming vinyl)
Genre: Sludge

In the 2 or so month wake of Thou's latest full length, Summit, I think I've finally arrived at an opinion. I'll shelf my personal recollection of Thou's back catalog and get right to it.

It comes to me as a paradox as the album is coherent and well constructed, yet incomplete and a bit too long.

The album itself doesn't offer amateurish leaps from mood to mood, or anything too avant-garde and misplaced, rather it's something I don't know how to really approach or pin-point. To play it safe, I'd say it feels as Thou are holding back with this release. One track shines, and another doesn't really do anything for me. "By Endurance We Conquer," "Prometheus," and "Another World Is Inevitable" are shining examples of Thou at their best. Maybe moreso than before, Thou showcases detailed, complicated, and moving songwriting as each of these three bleed sludgy sophistication. But on the other hand, I tend to skip "Grissecon" every time i spin the cd, as well as "Summit Revisited" and "Voices In The Wilderness." This is a real shame as that makes up for 2/5 of the album.

The first track, "By Endurance We Conquer" is a winner, although I kind of dislike the synth or whatever effect that is around the end. This song, and the one after, I think sum up my view on the album perfectly. Starting off and being great throughout, "By Endurance We Conquer" closes like some pre-war ritual; a preamble if you will. Unfortunately "Grissecon" loses the vibe and just widdles around for 8 minutes. There's many different things in the song, but nothing that really grabs me; call me spoiled.


Whatever complaints aside, the album is about the 4th track and the 4th track alone. "Another World Is Inevitable" is a typical Thou styled lesson in tension, climax, melody and emotion. Just 2 seconds over 10 minutes, "Another World Is Inevitable" works it's way through heaves of tar and viscous fluid until finally erupting around the 7 minute mark as constant bass drum beats merge into the measure like troops ranking into a final formation. The outcome is uplifting, trance inducing and awe-inspiring as Bryan screeches "A new world springs from the corpse of the old," and eventually "This will be the day." With the shift towards more dynamic and sprawling composure, the lyrics seem to match as they're optimistic and more demanding (fortunately, lyrics are a strong point of Thou and always have been;so this isn't such a stretch). Needless to say, I end up playing this track a lot.

When the muck boils away what's left is that I'm not thoroughly satisfied with this album.
This isn't as good as Tyrant, I don't know if anything could be. It's similar to Peasant as there are stellar songs but also some that are less. Where Peasant had "The Work Ethic Myth," "Belt of Fire to Guide me, Cloak of Night to Hide me," "Burning Black Coals And Dark Memories," and "They Stretch Out Their Hands;" Summit has its three as stated earlier.

Without question it's worth a purchase (as is everything this band seems to touch). That being said, Thou is dynamic enough, heartfelt enough, and invigorating enough to be the only band that matters now, and even though Summit has it's rough edges, there's plenty of strong footing.

Buy it here. I'll add one other thing, there can't be enough praise for Adam over at Gilead for his work with this release and all other Thou stuff; the cd jacket is beautiful and quality and the shirt is flawless.

Audio fodder:
"Another World Is Inevitable"
"By Endurance we Conquer"


-F

Thou - Kingdoms

Official Site
Label: Peasant Magik
Released: 2009
Release Type: 3 cassettes lmt. 300
Genre: Sludge

My excitement aside, this release offers a handful for collectors, enthusiasts, and even the casual listener. Packaged inside a small jet black box (roughly 4x4x4in.) you get three cassettes, each with a thick plastic like paper covered with beautiful grey/black artwork, a pin, a sticker, a patch, a vial of pine needles/cones, a small booklet with lyrics and pictures all on a bed of moss; quite the package, no?

The music contained in this beautiful little package is all of Thou's work from 2007-2008, not including their first two demos. You get two full lengths (Tyrant & Peasant), The Retaliation of the Immutable Force of Nature EP, To Carry a Stone EP ,We Pass Like Night, From Land to Land(split with Leech), Thrive & Decay (split with Black September), and Malfeasance-Retribution EP. There's a lot to take in, but it's all excellent. You can really appreciate a band when they don't have a single bad song.

Having heard most of this stuff on vinyl/mp3 I can say it sounds excellent here. I heard the Peasant album in my friend's car in mp3 format and we both commented how overproduced and weak it sounded, not here; the tape sounds excellent and carries that filthy heavy sludge sound that's damn near perfect.

So as far as the music's concerned I'll break it down by singular release.

Tyrant
Being the first release I heard by Thou I was an instant fan. Songs like "Tyrant" and "Fucking Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean" are stellar highlights (listen to that buildup around 6minutes in "Tyrant" holy hell that's awesome). With the previously mentioned songs we see vibrant sludge mixed with beautiful post metal sections (soaring guitars, build ups, huge sound). The more Eyehategod like sections are excellent mid-paced crashes of heavy riffs and monstrous drums all accompanied by venomously powerful vocals. In terms of the vocals, they sound much more like black metal vocals than anything else, yet they're still decipherable. Thou excel at what they do because they seemingly manage to mix that ugly, filthy, drug ridden vibe that we associate with sludge and mix it with the celestial sound that comes to mind with bands like Pelican and Caspian. Easily one of the best sludge releases I've ever heard.

Thrive & Decay
An excellent release in it's own right, as Black September plays an awesome brand of death metal akin to older Bolt Thrower, but here it's just Thou (as with the other split material included). The song from this release has a great movie clip at the beginning and the song carries out in a similar violent manner. Much more like Eyehategod (I hate to keep comparing, but it's true). Awesome song title as well, "Smoke Pigs."

We Pass Like Night, From Land to Land
Four Songs here, previously from the split with Leech. Things start softly with a calming acoustic intro which leads to the spacey and serene "Here I Stand, Head In Hand" which explodes into a brilliant cascade of emotive force, embodying itself in thick walls of distortion ravenous vocals and seeping bass. A much more atmospheric a offering from Thou. Much like the first track, "The Defeatist's Lament" ends with waves of distortion and clean guitars, as well as those ethereal female vocals present on "Here I Stand..." A very "whole" feeling ep, more like a mini album.

Malfeasance-Retribution
The two songs from the ep are phenomenal as we'd expect. Here they're sandwiched in between the Black September split and the Leech split. You gotta love the song titles, "The Severed Genitals of Every Rapist Hang Bleeding From These Trees" (although on the actual ep it's "bleeding genitals..." I don't know if this is a typo on Peasant Magik's part or not). Powerful and driving, both songs are full of rich textures and drift from pounding sludge, to rhythmic changes, to harrowing atmospheric passages. A bit more sludgy, but brilliant nonetheless.


To Carry a Stone
More of the same; first "They Stretch Out Their Hands" carries on a midpaced sludge affair until it breaks down to a harrowing slow section which it never seems to dig itself out of. "The Road of Many Names" begins with the ominous feedback we're all used to and dives in with a super thick and artillery heavy riff. The little haunting clean riff around the end really works well and is quite creepy. All in all I'd have to say this is thou's weakest work, but that's like saying "The Return" isn't as good "Under the Sign;" we're all winners.

Peasant
"The Work Ethic Myth" kicks things off perfectly, as it's one of the best tracks on the album and depicts Thou's sound perfectly. Peasant, an album which I'm not as well versed with as Tyrant, is still magnificent but doesn't hold the same place that Tyrant does for me. Sections like 5:10 into "Belt Of fire To Guide Me Cloak Of Night To Hide Me" and the first real riff of "Burning Black Coals And Dark Memories" are great and make up the weight of quality for this album. Not as strong as Tyrant, but remarkable nonetheless.

The Retaliation of the Immutable Force of Nature
Two songs again here. "What Blood Still Runs Through These Veins" crawls at a snail's pace yet carries a hippo's weight. The sound is giagantic and the guitars are as thicker than any football linebacker you can think of. They achieve a huge sound here and juxtapose the sludgy thickness with beautiful leads and powerful riffs. The track peters out to distortion and leads way to "Acceptance" which is one of my favorite songs. It's a post metal instrumental done better than any post metal band. The beautiful guitars weave back and forth in between lapses of reverb and accompanying drums. It all builds to a monumental crescendo with some of the most enthralling guitarwork I've ever heard around the six minute mark which luckily continues until around ten minutes. The progression and delivery is simply breath taking and proves that Thou are an exceptional band.

Beyond the excellent music, Thou create wonderful lyrics and have an absolutely magnificent image in their artwork and merchandise. Little epigraphs here and there on various releases depict a well read and versed band, as well as establish the morose atmosphere of the band. With all the releases I own of the band, each one was well worth the money as they all come with something special and have great artwork, Kingdoms is no different. The quote on the first page of the booklet,

"She used the ancient, long-forgotten "thou"- the "thou" of the master to the slave. It entered into me slowly, sharply. Yes, I was a slave, and this, too, was necessary, was good."

Taken from Yevgeny Zamyatin's book We is a powerful epigraph to this impressive body of work. The boxset is only $20 and well worth it; I'm a very happy camper with this one. Go to Thou's webpage and you can listen to every song of theirs i think.

-F

Zenocide-Zenocide

Zenocide Myspace
Released: 2009
Label: HG Fact
Release Type: Full Length, CD
Genre: Atmospheric Sludge

Displaying a powerfully raw and visceral sound, Japan's Zenocide explore heaviness and what sounds like the shambling abyss with their first full length aptly titled Zenocide. Slow and heavy is the name of the game, heavy pounding drums and constant cymbal crashes tied to thick and heavy down tuned guitars which barely ever play anything distinguishable all beneath horrifying vocals create a trash compactor of noise that seems overwhelming upon first listen.

The first track is a rough start as you cannot tell if this is how the recording actually is, or if it's just some effect to make the music a lot lower and muddier than it is; thankfully it's the latter. As stated earlier, the guitars really add atmosphere by playing a haze of notes that are almost indistinguishable, which allows the keyboards and vocals to carry each song and be the focal point.

Wheras Exit and Thrid almost sound like Xasthur covering Corrupted, the rest of the tracks remind me a lot more of the typical slow and heavy-as-hell sludge style of Grief or Corrupted. The lack of keyboards also helps hide the Xasthur comparison.

A lot of the time the guitars buzz or hum in the background. The perfect example of this is on the track Third which sounds a lot like an ambient depressive black metal band; y'know the type with a wall of guitar fuzz, slow plodding drums and tortured vocals and the main melody coming from ethereal Xasthur like keyboards. In fact, I might go as far to say if you'd call a lot of Xasthur's stuff black metal, then this could qualify as black metal too. These are actually my favorite portions of the album, they're very haunting and parried with the vocals, very powerful.

Zenocide seems like one of those bands that carry such a powerful low end sound and lots of feedback that seeing them live might be a very damaging engagement. I enjoy the more atmospheric keyboard driven parts like Exit and Thrid more than the Corrupted style of vocal driven sludge with a very slow and heavy trudge.

A standout part of this band are the vocals, from a very deep and gurgle-ly vocal style, to throat scratching shrieks and to everywhere in between, the vocalist really carries some of the songs or sections; fantastic.

Zenocide offer up a bunch with this release, taking sludge from it's more ambient and atmospheric flirtations, to it's painfully low end and slow side of sheer brutality; as I've always said, Japan doesn't know how to disappoint. HG Fact once again catches the cream of the crop, with a slew of great bands like Corrupted, Swarrrm, 324, Muga, and countless others, HG Fact remains to be a trusted label for excellence. This album is a killer and I hope to see more of this band.

No idea where to buy this, check our links, google only yielded downloads...
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-F