Thaw / Echoes Of Yul - Untitled (2014)
Do you like your music heavy? If your
answer is “Yes, of course!” then this new split from two Polish
bands, Thaw and Echoes Of Yul, will scratch that itch hard enough to
draw blood. Two tracks, ~40 minutes of staggering weight; gives you
a good idea of what's in store, yeah? But allow us to go into a bit
more detail on what you'll find should you do the right thing and
investigate this release on your own time.
First off, there's Thaw's track, “Earth
Grounded”. As I listened to it, I let my mind drift a little,
trying to put some sort of visuals to the colossal sound, which works
with bass, drums, and guitar, but treats them up with feedback,
reverb, and seriously savvy song-writing to transform those simple
components into a force of reckoning. What came to my mind? Well,
if you can remember an early scene from Terminator, it was
pretty close; war-machines looking to wipe out mankind. But add
slow-drifting snow, remove the lasers so that humans and machines
have to beat each other to death, and throw in a volcano slowly
cracking open as the two forces fight; that's what came to mind as
the most appropriate music video for this track. “Earth Grounded”
is a serious piece of work, and while it's almost entirely composed
of refining a core riff (you have to hear the bass carving away to
really get what they're after), there's more than enough ingenuity
and unpredictable developments to keep things from getting
repetitive. And the climax? Gave me goosebumps, to be honest.
There's a sharp cut from that to Echoes Of Yul's half, which is
titled “Asemic”. Checking a dictionary provides me with the
definition of an “inability to comprehend or use communicative
symbols,” and while I can't say it entirely fits the track (they
get the violence communicated without any trouble), it does fit their
mysterious, near-mystical atmosphere. Distant wails, trails of
scraping buzz, careful inflections of guitar touches drawn from the
finest funeral doom tradition, and a golden ear for how to build up
tension all come together in this one. I could have sworn I even
heard them working in a tastefully-subdued theremin at one point. The tension of the track builds and builds, giving few hints about
how it will resolve, and by the end, I could hardly remember how it
had begun, just how much everything had changed.
There's plenty of subtle details in
both tracks, offering some nice rewards for those willing to
undertake repeated listenings. Really, the best way I can come up
with to describe this release (sparing me from trying to pin-point
their myriad of influences) is that it's an incredibly lush and
fully-realized journey of sound. Doomy, epic, cosmic, experimental,
drone-utilizing... it's a wild ride, and one which has already
received some significant recognition on a global scale. The label behind this, Instant Classic, has managed quite the score, though physical copies are fast becoming scarce. Again, if
you enjoy heavy music that's unafraid to let the song go where it
wills, do not miss out on this one.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Indukti,
Ulver, Ksyatriya, Sunn O))), Mind (((O))) Reader
~
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