The Body and Thou
Released From Love

4.0
excellent

Review

by Dickens44 USER (3 Reviews)
October 2nd, 2014 | 25 replies

Release Date: 2014 | Tracklist

Review Summary: A brew of dreary doom and art-fractured amplifier cruelty

Not a split, but a collaboration between Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s longtime vendors of filthy, noisy, cheerless doom, Thou, and Portland, Oregon’s abstruse art-fractured doom duo, The Body. What’s noteworthy here is that both of these bands fit within the elastic and vague, ‘doom’ genre, but occupy disparate sides of the category. Thou have been successfully plying their brand of depressive sludge for several years, and, have released a handful of significant LP’s and singles, (particularly, the recent, ‘Heathen,’ which, will show up on more than few best-of lists come the end of ’14), but, have always exercised a more linear mode of songwriting. The Body on the other hand, have expanded the doom palate to integrate much more experimental aspects into their unique brand of song-craft. In the end, it’s an esoteric version of doom that is more akin to the feeling one has in a nightmare where you are being chased, but cannot run. Everything is a black storm of hissing hallucinations and crawling, plodding, dreary deserts of tortured and dying amplifier carcasses. The pairing of these two similar, yet opposing, sounds lends itself to a powerful LP that does something unusual in the collaboration world…it works.

The first thing one notices about this 4 song, vinyl only release, is that it’s at 45 RPM’s, thank you Vinyl Rites! The LP’s first song heaves into existence like a slow-motion panic attack. Leaden guitar sludge lurches and crunches, all-the-while buttressed by droning amplifier torture, and the dual vocals of the padded-cell screaming of The Body’s, Chip King, in contrast to the guttural laments of Thou’s, Brian Funck. It all fuses together to sound like some kind of deranged 16th century funeral procession. Midway through this din of ominous muck, these huge, crusty downtuned riffs lumber in, allowing the song an expanse to breathe before falling back into itself.

The second song follows suit with The Body’s black-electronic crashes shimmering against the defeated sludge of Thou, creating a deafening poem of loss and melancholia. The song ends on a piercing amplifier squill, which, as one flips the LP, transitions effectively into the atonal splendor of the 3rd song’s gristly beginning. It is this song, ‘In Meeting Hearts Beat Closer,’ where the two bands coalesce into one unholy whole. The song is almost performed in movements, giving it a fissured and unnerving sound. It is this disquiet that gives the song such a compelling and upsetting resonation. The songs dissonant beginnings are familiar, dark and ***ed-up, but still familiar, almost inviting, but as the song tells its loveless narrative, that inviting beginning seamlessly falls apart. The song’s structured opening statement cedes to its harrowing, howling ending. Thick amplifier squall saturates the final moments of the song, creating an alienating and strangely beautiful finale.

The closing song is a Vic Chesnutt cover, which, is pretty rad. I had never heard the original, so I YouTubed it, and, this is certainly one unstable version of his tune…which seems a bit unstable to begin with. Only being familiar with Chesnutt in name, I can’t really say if this does him justice, but the song itself is certainly the most accessible on the LP, and is a deeply dark and distressing song with an almost buzzing sadness to it. The ubiquitous hiss of amplifier screech and sepulchral guitar work mark the song as another successful partnership between the two bands.

After numerous listens, this LP hasn’t become stale or forgettable, and it’s an album that fits agreeably against the grey background of my oncoming 11-month Minnesota winter. As it gets colder, unkinder and darker here, I have a feeling a tall glass of scotch and this LP turned up loud will be fantastic bedfellows.

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