ALBUM REVIEW: Fading Backwards – Thaw
Right from even their earliest, self-titled debut album in 2013, it was abundantly clear to anyone who heard them that THAW were a band that were ultimately going to end up sounding vastly different from the majority of back metal acts out there.
Pairing a raw and discordant brand of black metal with hints of ambient music and Noise, this Polish act have a sound that can be best compared to bands like SUNN O))), at least in terms of sonic density and outright abrasiveness, with each of their first four albums dripping with genuine atmosphere whilst still being utterly noxious and visceral. Their fifth album, Fading Backwards, comes almost seven years on from their last record, 2017’s GRAINS, and builds upon the band’s magnificent and imposing sound to make it even more foreboding and effective.
The Great Devourer proves to be an incredibly powerful start to this record, with droning noise setting a bleak and ominous tone for what’s to come very early on. When the main part of this song bursts into life, it’s extremely dissonant, sombre black metal with grating, spartan guitar work, clanging bass and steady, booming drums, with reedy, haunting vocals occasionally reaching the surface of this opaque and murky musical brew and adding to the depressive harshness of this offering, with the overall effect making for a nauseating and claustrophobic one.
A Place Where Repetition Dwells initially feels as though its going to head down a more polished, borderline post-rock route, with crystalline guitars and angelic ambience making the listener feel that this may be a far lighter effort. Suddenly, this illusion is shattered with some intensely chaotic and visceral sounds that bring together elements of black metal, noise, grindcore and even touches of industrial and electronic music, notably as the song reaches its closing moments. For the most part this is exceptionally coarse and caustic, with rabid guitars, vocals that veer between the bellicose and the hypnotic with ease, and a near impenetrable rhythmic backdrop, creating a faster, fiercer sound that is utterly punishing at points.
Wartenberg Wheel, with its cavernous, percussive drum sound, weighty, clean guitar tone and hazy distortion, fleshes out the vast, warmer qualities that were hinted at at the beginning of the previous song, completely pivoting towards a melancholic post-rock style that, after the more abrasive bent of the last two numbers, provides a brief but welcome reprieve from the aural assault, showing a gentler and indeed accessible, doom-laden side to THAW that sounds excellent, gradually peppering in the harder black and sludge sections that this ultimately morphs into, resulting in an expansive and subtly grandiose edge that it’s easy to get drawn in by.
In The Laughter And The Stride blends together the atmospheric aspects of its predecessor with the kind of dense black metal that worked for effectively on the opening two songs, crafting a robust and monolithic sound that serves as a streamlined version of the frenetic formula that kicked this album off, transforming these gnarled, monstrous components into something a lot more focused and immersive, without having to sacrifice any of the underlying darkness.
Dissociate Me/Spreader Bar, shifting to a muscular, doom-laden groove, ties together a slower, funereal pace with heady, twisted electronic flourishes, developing a thicker, fuzzy sound that lends this a rawer, grimier sound, fantastically using the heavier, atonal parts of the THAW sound to supplement this far more ponderous and primitive sound, meaning that it throbs and pulses with life in a way that it simply wouldn’t have if the band had embraced a more traditional doom metal template. Moral Justification Of Selfishness expands further on the huge and imposing sound, throwing in some biting lead guitars in among the thunderous drums and sludgy, rumbling bass, with the stringent sound moving away from the chunky, lumbering feel of the last track and injecting a biting, searing edge into the mix that is both jarring and, as it lurches towards its climax, bleakly epic.
Much like the excellent Grains, Fading Backwards is a black metal record that captures a more distinct sound than many modern black metal bands, with the ambient, noise and doom touches all lending this whole album an oppressive, yet subtly grandiose sound. However, there are some notable differences; Where Grains certainly does a lot to accentuate the expansive overtones of the music, Fading Backwards successfully attempts to create something far more claustrophobic and depressive, making for an album that sounds great whilst being unflinchingly harsh, punishing and dramatic, making the absolute most of each song to develop a sound that is incredibly strong and cohesively dark.
Rating: 9/10
Fading Backwards is out now via Agonia Records.
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