Review Summary: Thou art pissed
It’s a difficult thing to choose a band name which fully encompasses an artist’s chosen sound and vision, especially when said band name is only a single word. But I’d argue that “Thou” does just that. A short, monosyllabic, archaic word conveys so much in this case - perhaps its association as the authoritative beginning of those biblical commandments gives credence to the unforgiving atmospheres Thou regularly provides us - their songs’ feeling of ancient impregnability and their wrathful Old Testament energy.
Band names aside, this Louisiana crew is now at the stage of their career in which they are simply building upon an already prodigious legacy. Leaving aside their sprawling set of EPs, compilations, and collaborations, the group’s LPs over the last nearly two decades represent one of the finest bodies of work in all of metal, not just their chosen field (or better yet, mire) of sludge. Whether it’s the more straightforward heaviness of early albums like 2007’s
Tyrant or the sprawling, somewhat more restrained (if no less hellish) later output like 2014’s
Heathen, Thou’s previous five full-lengths have never been less than excellent.
Well, make that six. Coming six years after the band’s last record bearing only their name (2018’s
Magus),
Umbilical unleashes a different side of the band’s signature blend of bone-crunching riffs and ear-splitting screeching, but it’s characteristically well-crafted and certain to satisfy music fans previously seduced by Thou’s grim and imposing style.
What’s so different this time around? The simple answer is that Thou have retreated back towards their less complex youthful style, reducing the winding nature of many of their compositions in favor of a sole focus on heaviness, early and often. But, in reality
Umbilical doesn’t particularly resemble the band’s 2000s’ full-lengths that much either. Instead, these ten songs tend to be shorter than usual, leaning upon the hardcore/punk influences which informed the original sludge style, and finally and most importantly, much of this material feels similar in spirit to recent efforts by the likes of Primitive Man and Mastiff - acts which share some nihilistic sludge DNA with Thou, sure, but I’d previously found Thou’s musical interpretation far more “delicate”, for lack of a better term. Here, the band simply lets loose and the resulting heaviness is (often) harder, better, faster, stronger (with credit to the once great Kanye West). Some listeners may quibble with one or more of the adjectives used in the last sentence, but the key takeaway is that Thou’s vicious anger is completely untrammeled here.
With that in mind, where a listener feels
Umbilical ranks within this lauded discography, and even how they assess the strongest songs on this record, will come down heavily upon their sonic preferences. For myself, as much as I can appreciate the balls-to-the-wall energy of the rippers which populate this tracklist (tunes like “I Feel Nothing When You Cry” and “The Promise” cannot be denied), I feel most drawn to some of the tracks which feel closer to Thou’s previous doomier work - like opener “Narcissist’s Prayer”, the lumbering “I Return Chained and Bound to You”, and the satisfying, riffy, closer “Siege Perilous”. And, it’s notable that a moment like the vaguely triumphant melody which ends the otherwise absolutely pummeling “House of Ideas” is one of the most memorable things on the album, emphasizing the importance of brief instants of respite amid the otherwise near-complete forty-nine minute festival of neutron star heaviness, with little hint of calm, let alone joy. But, even if the overall direction isn’t quite my cup of tea, given its overwhelming nature, there’s also no denying few have done it better. The headline takeaway is that Thou art pissed, yea, even more pissed than normal, but they’ve channeled that rage into some excellent music, as usual.
