Review Summary: The world is a crappy place, and Thurm intend to tell you all about it.
The world we live in is in many ways a horrible place; or rather, many of the things that we as humans do to not only our planet but also each other can in many cases leave a lot to be desired. It is this that blackened hardcore outfit Thurm have every intention of letting us know about, and they do it on their debut full-length with all the grace of a nailbomb through a letterbox.
Simply put, this album is an unrelenting barrage of tremolo picking, furious drumming, panic chord-laden breakdowns and throat lacerating vocals from the start. However, this would be a too simplistic way of looking at the individual songs and the tone they create - for example, opener 'Modern Slavery Exists' feels more like a blackgaze song in parts creating a slightly more melancholic atmosphere, whereas its follow up 'Faroe' is a fast-paced, chaotic black metal onslaught which illustrates the anger they feel towards the subject matter (whale hunting in the Faroe Islands) perfectly. Vocalist Anna's diatribes are roared out with such conviction that their credibility is entirely indisputable - a cursory glance at the tracklisting is all one needs to understand what most of the songs are about, and with topics like the aforementioned whale hunting, female genital mutilation and child abduction it's obvious nothing's being taken lightly. That said, there is a certain poeticism to the lyrics which is particularly evident in third track 'Children of the Night', giving such wonderful description as 'planks scream your name' and 'black welters await you / don't harbour their embrace'.
Whereas other bands in the genre such as Plebeian Grandstands and Hexis utilise labyrinthine song structures to unsettle and mesmerise the listerner, the slightly more straightforward approached used by Thurm is effective at bludgeoning the listener into submission instead - this does, however, come at the cost of it feeling a little bit repetitive, or at the very least like they should try one or two lighter moments to break it up. The final track does seem to address this to an extent, opting for a doom-influenced riff to build upon rather than immediately going balls out (so to speak) and it's pulled off surprisingly well, its positioning in the album providing a satisfying conclusion to an album otherwise dedicated to sounding as meaningfully aggressive as possible. 'Enough' also shows a subtle change in their sound - whilst still maintaining the hallmarks of the previous tracks it manages to (especially by the end) create a slightly optimistic feeling, both lyrically and musically.
Undeniably vicious, this opening encounter with Thurm is bloody and menacing, but also well-intentioned and surprisingly thoughtful across its 7 tracks. A little more variation wouldn't go amiss in parts, but a truly engrossing listen nevertheless means that hopefully the German quartet are here to stay in the ever-growing blackened hardcore circle.
