Review Summary: The ominous creaking of a door that only makes you more curious than before
Thaw, the fifth album by JG Thirlwell’s chaotic musical endeavor
Foetus, starts out with the sounds of a creaking door, a very fitting way to open the album. When you open a giant, metal door, unsure and scared of what you’ll find inside, the last thing you want to hear is the scrapping creaks. It’s unnerving, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It’s just like listening to
Thaw, the ominousity in the doors creaking makes it so that you don’t want to hear something like “Don’t Hide It, Provide It”.
“Don’t Hide It...” is a f
ucking gross track, the lyrics are like a collage of death threats, and JG’s performance is over-the-top and, to be honest, kind of scary. The guitar feedback that covers the hypnotic drum beat and destructive riffs only add to the tracks intensity, and the lyrics
“You’re cruising for a bruising/You’re yearning for a burning/You’re aching for a breaking” does not help lighten the mood. This track simply makes you feel like taking a bath just for listening to it.
Thaw is probably the most intense, in-your-face, and offensive Foetus album, even by today’s standards. The instrumentation is very well done, almost all of the tracks are practically flooded with bizarre instrumentals, not a single second goes by without some insane musical ambush.
“Hauss-On-Fah” is a brutal example of the amazing instrumentation. The entire track is an assault to the ears. Tribal drums, layered with noise and samples of jungle animals, are very much present in the song, giving off a real sense of absolute chaos. The lyrics aren't very peachy either, detailing a gruesome story of racism. To summarize it: two cops burn down the house of a gang, the gang retaliates by kidnapping one of the cops wives, killing her, and leaving her body in the desert. You could probably imagine how the story goes from there. Thirlwell performance is simply great, the way he chuckled when he mutters the line
“Burning’s a painful way to go/So I ain’t gonna miss this show” is nothing short of disgusting, making the song all the more memorable.
While
Thaw includes some of JG’s best tracks in his entire career, it also includes some of his most uninteresting. The 30-second “Fin” sounds more like a cheap jump scare than an actual track, being composed of loud, sharp noises and Thirlwell wailing
“Feast your foetus” over and over again like a broken record player. “Barbedwire Tumbleweed” is a relatively disappointing track to listen to; It builds up in a very epic and overwhelming fashion, as if it has an absolutely incredible ending. Unfortunately, the track simply doesn’t go
anywhere, instead wandering around and wasting time. The album, unlike “Barbedwire Tumbleweed” however, has a build up that leads to a very satisfying conclusion, which is titled “A Prayer For My Death”.
The track, simply put it, is
badass. Thirlwell sounds exhausted, yet furious, as if he just finished fighting off an entire army. The guitar is slick and the bass is ferocious, perfectly complimenting each other, forming an overwhelmingly sweet jam of an instrumental. The song in general sounds like the ending theme of a violent action movie, it’s the kind of song that makes you want to listen to the entire album again just to hear JG’s ghastly whispering of
“Save your prayer for my death!”.
To summarize:
Thaw is one of the most cathartic Foetus albums ever made. Thirlwell’s performance is absolutely stunning, ranging from intense shrieks to sleek moans, leaving much of an impression on the listener. While the album has a good chunk of filler to it, there’s still enough meat on its bones to satisfy listeners who are hungry for great music. It’s the ominous creaking of a giant metal door; It makes you nervous to find out exactly what you find inside. The thing is, with this album, you’d want to examine everything that could be found within.
