Thou - Umbilical (2024)^{Release ID: 52264}

I've never really given the prolific back catalogue of Los Angeles sludge metallers Thou as good a chance to impress me as I probably should have to tell you the truth. My early experiences with the band were a little hit & miss which is possibly why I haven't found the motivation to explore much further. 2008's "Peasant" sophomore album didn't offer me much in the way of appeal. I did quite like the follow-up in 2010's "Summit" but wouldn't say that it left me feeling entirely convinced either. It wasn't until I had the pleasure of experiencing Thou in a live environment in 2012 that I saw the real potential in them & at that point I committed to giving the Americans another chance. Somehow, that hasn't eventuated though which is one of the reasons that the impact of their brand-new full-length "Umbilical" has been so significant. It's well & truly taken me by surprise & has turned my position on Thou's importance to the global metal scene around in fairly emphatic fashion it has to be said.

"Umbilical" is an ultra-abrasive, super-intense beast of a metal record that wastes very little time with formalities. It's as immediate a release as you'll find, unleashing all of its charms right from the offset as it pulverizes the listener into submission through a succession of savage assaults on the senses. The highlights are nothing short of devastating with the doomier numbers like "Lonely Vigil" & closer "Siege Perilous" being particularly amazing. The incredibly vicious "I Return as Chained and Bound to You" is probably my favourite inclusion though & those three tracks make up a trio of some of the finest examples of the sludge metal genre you're likely to find with the excellent "House of Ideas" not sitting too far behind. The screamed vocals of front man Bryan Funck are the clear focal point & are some of the most ball-tearing & unapologetically violent I've ever encountered which gives the more brutal material an additional edge that sees it achieving the maximum impact available to it. Thou are very much a cohesive unit from an instrumental point of view though so it's hard to pick out individual performances. I will say that I particularly enjoy some of the drum fills which appear at key moments to signal yet another rise in intensity.

I wouldn't say that "Umbilical" is unanimous in its successes though. The tracklisting isn't consistently brilliant enough to achieve my more elite ratings. There's a bit of a lull towards the end of the album with the more accessible "The Promise" sounding a touch out of place, even if it does contain a decent chorus hook that eventually drew me in. It's followed by "Panic Stricken, I Flee" which is the only song that doesn't do much for me but thankfully Thou opted to follow these two which the gargantuan closer "Siege Perilous" which brings things back to where they should be before the end of the release. The rest of the record is rock solid & offers enough in the way of excitement to see me getting very close to pulling out a big score but not quite getting there in the end. Thou should be very proud of what they've achieved here though because, while "Umbilical" may not be the sort of record that you can throw on for any occasion, it serves its purpose extremely well i.e. it severs your limbs from you body & proceeds to beat you with them in a barrage of unrivalled aggression & distain.

For fans of Primitive Man, Indian & Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean.

There must be something skulking in those Louisiana swamps that is poisoning the water, how else can you explain the sheer vitriolic venom of the output of its premier sludge metal acts such as Eyehategod, Acid Bath and the Baton Rouge crew here in question. Thou's version of sludge metal is as confrontational and rebellious as the harcore punk that spawned it's more slothful and threatening offspring. Umbilical, conceptually and autobiographically, examines a life lived outside the accepted societal norms, but which is still constrained by an inner morality and the existential implications of living such a life. So a million miles from the wizards and dragons metalheads are stereotypically painted as being obsessed with then!

The album, I am sure it goes without saying, this being Thou we are talking about, is ludicrously heavy as you would expect. The cranky, oozing riffs are massive, hulking motherfuckers and despite really being too sharp and crunchy to truly be called crushing, they are anyway, with those ponderous drumbeats just adding extra weight and force to the mountain that has taken up residence on your chest. Meanwhile Bryan Funck unleashes hell with vocal tirades that are so savage and visceral that you fear for the longterm health of his vocal chords

This is not an album that is monolithically slow and doom-ridden, though, as the band incorporate influences ranging from death metal, metalcore, grunge and crust punk into the swirling maelstrom of misgivings that threatens to sweep the listener away like a metal tsunami of righteous indignation. "The Promise" and "Panic Stricken, I Flee" both have ridiculously catchy melodies that could have come from Alice In Chains or Soundgarden if they weren't so damn filthy-sounding and the riffs during the one-two mid-album punch of "I Feel Nothing When You Cry" and "Unbidden Guest" are as energetic as those spewed out by any young metalcore crew. The drumming towards the end of the latter is also worth special mention, it being an impressive artillery battery of percussion that sounds like a Celtic tribal warband preparing for battle and lays to rest the lie that doom metal drummers can't really play.

Of course, Thou are still capable of showing us their slower, more hulking side with "Lonely Vigil", "House of Ideas", "I Return as Chained and Bound to You" and the closer "Siege Perilous" lumbering out of the speakers with huge crashing waves of sonorous sonic devastation. This is not a sludge album that is built upon endless layers of atmospherics and build-ups in the quest for the ultimate climactic payoff, but very much refers back to the roots of sludge metal being composed of songs that have something to say, both musically and lyrically, delivered with a bruising and ascerbic irascibility that very much appeals to the contrary and grumpy old bastard in me. This is a seriously heavy record that Thou have delivered, interesting both for it's musical diversity in what can become a repetitious field and also it's lyrical and conceptual musings.

Many of you will know that my palette in relation to doom metal is quite niche. I'm not super into the droning, unchanging albums that simply wallow away in a single tone for an hour runtime. I much prefer the more melodic side of the genre that is shown in death doom. And yet somehow I find sludge metal to be far more entertaining. It's usually far heavier from a sonic perspective and borrows from Pit clan genres like thrash and groove metal, which I know I'm been vocal about the past five years.

Thou is a band that I was never familiar with until Umbilical was requested for reviewing purposes. They have an extensive discography that dates back almost two decades and have a similar release formula to Full of Hell as they bring in collaborators such as The Body, Mizmor and Ragana. And with Umbilical, you can tell that Thou are playing to a very specific type of sludge metal; one that might take some getting used to for the more traditionalist doom/sludge fan, but that helps it in the long run.

There is a good share of metalcore influence on Umbilical. The riffage is precise and the unison bridge's carry a lot of this records drive and momentum. And the riffs, while nothing super innovative or ear catching, songs like "I Feel Nothing When You Cry," "The Promise" and especially "Panic Stricken, I Flee" feel like fully developed songs. I was super impressed by this albums longer tracks "Narcissist's Prayer" and "House of Ideas," which are very cohesive and tell a full story throughout the runtime. Some of the albums early, shorter tracks feel as if they were missing something from the piece; almost like they needed one final chorus to bring everything back together.

Production is very solid. For as sludgy as an album Umbilical can be, it lives up to that title with some heavy, dank guitar tones and a cavernous low end. The percussion is robust, but never feels like it is overtaking the guitar or vocals as the main attention seeker. The vocals are harsh and delivered with a "sludgy" pretense which matches beautifully with the instrumentals, but something about them being so shredded and pushed back in the mix just does not feel right to me in this style of music. I understand the album has lyrical themes of isolation and grief, which is a nice touch of detail, but it can make things harder to digest.

While I did praise the album for its condensed runtime earlier, I do have concerns with the lack of diversity in the soundscape. Yes, it's doom/sludge metal. It's hateful, aggressive, loathing, but nowhere within Umbilical does Thou give its listeners an opportunity to mentally recover from the cacophony of sound. This band is incredibly lucky that Umbilical is produced well because I'm not sure if I could have tolerated this meshy timbre with a less than pristine mix. I do really like this album and Thou did an excellent job of taking influence from other bands outside of their genre to create something that is uniquely theirs, but also indebted to the past. 

Best Songs: Narcissist's Prayer, House of Ideas, I Feel Nothing When You Cry, The Promise