ALBUM REVIEW: What Will Be Lost – Throwing Bricks

THROWING BRICKS. How’s that for a band name? With all the anger, frustration and fear sloshing about in the world at the moment, a nice bit of straight-up, no-nonsense violence could be just what the doctor ordered. The only question that remains is, does What Will Be Lost live up to those lofty expectations? The answer depends on what you mean by ‘violence’. THROWING BRICKS is a five-piece hailing from Utrecht (Netherlands), and ply a desperate form of hardcore mixed with “slow and crushing sludge riffs and dashes of black metal and screamo”, in their own words. The press release also states that this is for fans of bands such as OATHBREAKER, AMENRA and ULTHA, among others of their ilk.

What Will Be Lost/Won’t Happen Again kicks off the proceedings with a calm and subdued guitar line topped off with anguished shouting by lead vocalist Niels Koster, which continues throughout the entirety of the track and makes for a considerably bleak beginning, before unexpectedly kicking up a fine racket right at the end.

The Day He Died follows straight away with a very dark, distorted and doomy bass line courtesy of Jordi van Putten until the rest of the band jump in with a pure sludge attack. This is a totally bottom-end-heavy assault, with Jesse Stey and Marius Prins down-picking their downtuned guitars through simple, monolithic riffs while drummer Bart van der Blom beats the hell out of his cymbals. A sweet lead guitar melody emerges from the murk to accompany the funeral procession on the final stretch to the cemetery.

The doomy pace is blown out of the window by Constant Failure, with blast beats and impenetrable walls of discordant guitar noise eventually giving way to a TRAGEDY-esque neo-crust lament. The screamo influences are particularly evident in Niels’s throat-shredding delivery, making one reach instinctively for the Strepsils. As is usually the case with this type of bands, the vocals can be an acquired taste, and their lack of variation beyond a hopeless yell can become grating after a while.

Ceremony is only the fourth cut, but the very draining nature of the soundscape makes it feel like longer. Thankfully, the band know when to change things up – or, in this case, down – as this is an entirely drone/noise track, full of reverb and squalling feedback for the whole six minutes until Patterns Rise smashes in with its tremolo-picked guitars, before slamming the brakes on again and dropping back into doom territory. One can only imagine these lads transforming venues into bottomless pits of despair and desperation when assaulting audiences, as there are numerous sections that give off an almost improvised, live feel.

Glass Queen continues pounding the listener into dust in what turns out to be the shortest track on here, before Galling provides some much-needed respite with a clean and tranquil guitar line reminiscent of the opening track, giving the listener the impression of having survived a furious storm at sea with the boat now floating out the other side onto calmer waters. The feeling is somewhat shattered halfway through, although not quite to the hopeless extremes of earlier, with the lighter mood holding out even through the short blast-beat section. Finally, closer Ready To Fall combines all of the above in what could be interpreted as a summary to round off the record.

According to the press statement that accompanies this debut full-length, “THROWING BRICKS’ music might sound angry and aggressive, but first and foremost it’s emotionally punishing,” and there can be no doubt as to the emotive content. However, speed is definitely an afterthought, with the anger and aggression coming through more in the guise of barely controlled, seething fury instead of a mindless rampage to lob the eponymous construction site material through every window and car windscreen within a 50-mile radius.

What Will Be Lost is a murky and draining slog indeed, which is exactly what it aims to be. You will be reaching for your favourite power metal record after this one.

Rating: 7/10

What Will Be Lost is set for release May 15th via Tartarus Records.

Like THROWING BRICKS on Facebook.