This Will Destroy You are a Post Rock band out of Texas. They have left no way for me to come up with one of my usual (not so) clever introduction paragraphs. Someone has yet to write anything about the band on Wikipedia, their website is damn near bare and their Myspace gives out nothing but the first names of the band members. So instead of delivering the usual boring paragraph about band history or something along those lines, I am forced to jump head first into the review.
Young Mountain , the debut recording from This Will Destroy You, has a questionable status. Clocking in at 36 minutes, divided into six songs, it seems both too long to be an EP and too short to be an LP. As compared to many of This Will Destroy You’s contemporaries, something else seems too short. You see This Will Destroy You, unlike other Post Rock artists like Godspeed You! Black Emperor for example, cram all the epic-ness you’d expect from a Post Rock song into half the normal time slot, a la Mogwai. The five minute album opener
Quiet is simply put, the most grand five minute track I have ever heard. The guitars shimmer, bass is just the right mix or aggressive and laid back, while the ever pounding drums bring it all together. There are no vocals, though that shouldn’t come as a shock, but still This Will Destroy You make some catchy tunes.
TWDY’s sound is near perfect. Production wise, everything is right where it should be. Tone wise, it doesn’t get much better. The quiet parts are tear jerking. The loud parts, while equally tear jerking, are brutal. A better example of this than
The World is Our ____ cannot be found. The first two minutes contain over lapping arpeggios of guitar and bass, whilst a electronic sounding drum beat plays underneath, this part, the “verse” per say, reoccurs later on in the song. The “chorus” could easily be thought of as the chorus to a metal song, it is so heavy. The rhythm guitar is aided by tons of distortion, while the lead is as textured as ever. The bass and drums work to together to create a pummeling beat for which all of this goes down on. I wish I could play drums like they are played on this album. There are no ridiculous fills, no million bpm playing either, just some of the most solid drumming I have ever heard. Even when the only thing being played is a simple ride cymbal pattern, it sounds perfect. The electronica influence only just makes me love the drums more. Every instrument on This Will Destroy You’s sounds perfect, but the drums give off an unspoken radiance. Simple, yet complex when the time comes, they fit in perfectly.
Closing off the album is
There Are Some Remedies Worse than the Disease , probably the most ambient track on the CD. Beginning with two interlocking, textured guitar riffs, the song builds up through prominent bass parts and powerful drums into an all too short, violin aided, heavy climax. The album ends with a couple seconds of guitar feedback and leaves you with, despite its short length, a good feeling.
4.5/5
-Dan
