Release Date: May 10th 2024. Record Label: Consouling Sounds. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
About Life - Tracklisting
1.Getting Even 07:20
2.Brilliant Insane 05:23
3.Inebriated 06:53
4.Dirt 01:23
5.Pleasure 06:57
6.You Must Comply 07:54
7.Disgrace 04:27
8.Tranquil 05:53
Band Members
Vocals/Bass: Wouter Goolaerts
Guitars: Jannick Van Den Bogaert
Guitars: Jens Depetter
Drums: Jan Cassiers
Review
Belgian Doom/Sludge Metallers Throatsnapper come roaring back to life with their brutally dark new album About Life. Combining the harsh movements of Thrash, Post-Metal, Psych, Grind, Post-Rock and Post-Metal, the record controls the bleak atmospherics with a deafening and highly confident presence. The whole sound is quite muscular and aggressive with Throatsnapper playing complex sounding melodies with moments of fast-paced sludgy guitars and abstract noise effects which you’ll feel and hear on the epic opening track of Getting Even.
Getting Even is a faster and meaner version of ISIS and Neurosis based Sludge/Post-Metal with the guttural vocals of Wouter appearing when only they’re needed. The instrumental passages are dense and fuelled by complex Prog Metal structures with an elusive Grind/Doom/Thrash element appearing though the switch to Ambient Post-Rock sounds is a welcome bonus as well.
Second track Brilliant Insane is a more straightforward style of Doom/Sludge Metal with a classic sounding groove becoming Post-Metal obsessed with Wouter’s vocals taking a more commanding presence. Extended instrumental sounds become more Progressive and Psychedelic in nature. The track becomes more vivid and interesting when Throatsnapper to a highly volatile of Stop/Start THRASH based sounds and you begin to appreciate how talented the guys actually are. There’s a wealth of different sounding Doom/Sludge Metal grooves appearing when merging with the other areas of metal that the band inject into the overall mix of the album.
Throatsnapper continue to explore the different aspects and fundamentals of the Atmospheric Sludge Metal sound that becomes the main creative force for their music with some wonderful sonic induced Post-Rock aesthetics leading to some of the most haunting moments of the album. Though, Throatsnapper still diverge into the other areas of their musical arsenal of violent grooves which become ever more threatening when the Groove and Thrash aspect becomes quite dominant on tracks such as: Inebriated, Pleasure, You Must Comply and Tranquil.
About Life is an emotionally charged and complex sounding record which can be quite unsettling in places with Throatsnapper playing an uncompromising style of Doom/Sludge Metal that will leave you on the edge of your seat until the final brutal seconds of the album finally appears.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Consouling Sounds for the promo.
About Life is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Consouling Sounds.
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