vote
8.0
- Band:
YOU - Duration: 00:48:47
- Available from: 05/31/2024
- Label:
-
Sacred Bones Records
Whoever was assigned to keep track of Thou's discography would, at some point, throw in the towel, unable to keep up with the dizzying and irregular pace of releases. An overflowing, gargantuan collection of albums, EPs, splits, collaborations, within which the pessimistic, devastated sonic identity of the Louisiana band is repeatedly crumpled and sandpapered, without straying too far from its main connotations.
For several years one of the greatest icons of the filthiest, most anguished and depraved sludge/doom, Thou had as their last 'regular' album the well-received “Magus” of 2018, but it is probably with what happened subsequently that they have further expanded their range of action. Outside of their dedicated audience, the collaboration for a full-length and an EP with Emma Ruth Rundle (“May Our Chambers Be Full” and “The Helm Of Sorrow”) has aroused interest and real acclaim in non-metal environments, while on a decidedly more threatening front, the marriage of intent with Mizmor has proven particularly successful, sublimated in the collaborative album “Myopia”.
“Umbilical” would therefore be the direct successor to “Magus”, and in this timeline formed exclusively by full-length albums, the contiguity and consequentiality of what was played appears more than ever clear and obvious, given that this new album also clearly bears the sonic stigmata of the group, without any possible misunderstanding. For those who have not yet had the pleasure – or the pain, depending on the point of view – of crossing their earlobes with the creature from Baton Rouge, the impact would in any case not be exactly harmless. The guitars intoxicated with watts, flabby, comatose and super heavy are still on display, a sign of a physical and internal battle that shows no signs of abating. A gurgling, frayed and very loud sound, which amplifies beyond measure the tradition of the swampy stench of people like Eyehategod and Crowbar, to bring them into a current of extremist sounds, even angrier, devoid of self-control and with a penetrating and obsessive pace.
To cover with more hate, harshness and fury the pungent hardcore voice of Bryan Funck, who with his timbre and monotonous interpretation has become a symbol of the evil of living applied to sludge/doom. The hardcore component has always made the sound of Thou particularly belligerent, music of struggle, of assault even in its slowest and most uniform conformations. In this case, going a bit in assonance with the dynamism of the aforementioned “Myopia”, the band gains grip and squareness, as if they had decided to put aside a little the tendency to exhaustion, and had decided to go straight to the point without too many lucubrations of any kind.
Thus, incisive songs are born, with often pressing and drumming rhythms, which, while not betraying anything of their thick and uncompromising bark, allow for a slightly less demanding appreciation. The lightening of the minutes and this instinctiveness, precisely, more concise, benefit the tracklist, which presents itself less uniform and marmoreal than other occasions, allowing a pinch of stylistic variety and not mortifying those who are less accustomed to all this hostility.
Thus, next to engulfing pools of quicksand like “Lonely Vigil” and “I Returned As Chained And Bound To You”, here appear the possessed “I Feel Nothing When You Cry” and “Unbidden Guest”, or one can appreciate the ambivalence of chilling ferocity and elusive sinuosity of “House Of Ideas”, one of the most composite and least predictable episodes of “Umbilical”.
The exaggerated volumes, the compactness, the sense of widespread malaise, remain the common denominator of every note played: there are no pauses, there is never an end to the torment. Pruning away those slownesses that these musicians liked to show off in the past, the band's message reaches us even more clearly, presenting more agile barriers to cross a little for anyone who chews extremist sounds like these.
For some this could be the 'usual' Thou album, yet, here there is no grim reiteration of themselves, rather a new essay of thunderous devastation, carried out with acuity and effectiveness in the damage caused. Sludge to the nth degree.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM