Thaw: "Earth Ground"

This Polish band digs deep into the darkness to churn out some cavernous sludge ridden blackened metal. Not unlike the parable of the blind men and the elephant, it depends on what part of this band you experience as you how you might define them. This year we began to see the magnitude of the influence the last resurgence of black metal had on music as their is not an extreme act these days that doesn't have some blackened element to them. I can appreciate the fact these guys don't just throw a bunch of blast beats at you to see what sticks.The songs tend to be linked to another by moans of feedback, but have enough variance to where they do not all sound the same.

There is a little more of a technical edge to the attack of "Sun". The vocals go into the choked yell common in sludge that old Mastodon is probably most marked by.'Sun" eventually faded into the background upon the first listen or so there is more of a melodic dissonance to " No Light" is bears a noisy wall of shimmering tremolo and feedback. However this diversion is effective when the songs starts back in. They do hold more of an obvious sludge like attack on some of the punchier sections. These guys do like their noise and use every chance they get to throw some in, but not as the sake of the song.

They hit a very Nachtmystium like place on "Soil". Even the hateful way the vocal are timed. This is one of the albums darker moments. They are not trying blister you here , but letting the slow burn do it's work. There is a similar throb to the droning build of "Winter's Bone'. These songs are similar in the transcend way they lull you into the swing of the pulse.This is yet again another on of the songs that brings Blake Judd comparisons to mind. I doubt these guys are getting as high, but there is a heroin hypnosis churning here.

The cosmic thrall of "Last Day" shows once the noise days down they are not playing around. It is almost a call and response to this ufo sound from a 1950's sci-fi movie. The grime filled pound they deliver here is pretty impressive even though this song doesn't no have the sonic scope the others might have projected. The need for speed at the end seems a little like a cop out as they had been pretty solid on finding creative ways to hit you with both the sonic and metal heaviness. The sludge pound is more effective that the burst of freak out spastics toward the end. This album has some good sounds and if you miss the glory days of Nachymystium, but don't have to have blast beats then this is for you, I like the heroin metal here, but some of the more droning section of noise got old quick and the lumber lingered longer than I might have liked in places, so I 'll give this one an 8.5.
5.2