May 22nd, 2011
Genre: Sludge/Doom Metal
Region: USA
While I was sitting around between reading breaks I was thinking back on past live shows (having just seen Russian Circles for a second time which was fantastic), and I kept coming back to the Thou with Wolves in the Throne Room/Gates/Thantifaxath show a few months back. All the bands that played that night were great but I can easily say that seeing Thou for the 30 minutes they were on stage was one of the most intense and heavy live shows I've experienced. Being so ridiculously close to the band while they were performing on a half-pipe I was nearly smashed between the bassist and guitarist during the entire earth-shaking set, swaying and entranced by the tremendous doom they conjured up right through to a wonderful Black Sabbath cover that finished it off. Thou absolutely surpassed my expectations. Then I realized I have never posted one of their albums here which disturbed me a little.
Thou are undeniably a very hard working band. They've consistently put out at least four or five releases every year since 2007 (sometimes posting their stuff for free) and all of them are quality. "The Archer & The Owle" is one of three releases this year — a punishing and crawling sludge beast as all their records are. It contains three excellent covers ("Nirvana - Something in the Way", "Pygmy Lush - Cold World" and "There There"), two 10 minute mammoth originals (one that appears on Summit as a bonus track) and one short interlude with a trumpet (again from Summit); all of which emanate a cold and agonizing atmosphere alongside the relentlessly heavy growls of the guitars/bass and hoarse, shrieking vocals in true Thou fashion.
Nothing can compare to their live performance in all honesty but this is quite a record and I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already (and if you can find a copy, grab one).
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