Best of 2011 (eps) #4 THOU - The Archer & The Owle (Robotic Empire)

Clocking in at nearly forty minutes, "The Archer & The Owle" is a rather generous EP that features some of Thou's best and most dynamic work yet. Featuring songs from the same sessions that spawned the band's monumental "Summit" record, this is Thou at their most expansive. Piano, horns and choral-like vocals mix with the band's thunderous doom-sludge to great effect. The band sounds downright victorious on the anthematic "Voices In The Wilderness," while the dirge-like "Bonnet Carre" hypnotizes with sprawling guitar work. To round out the ep, the group includes a cover of Nirvana's "Something In The Way" that doesn't just do justice to the original, it actually kind of bests it, at least for anyone who felt like the chorus should have been screamed and not whispered. Also featured are a set of covers from the folk-rock band Pygmy Lush, which, of course, Thou totally destroys by turning them into hardcore doom epics.

"Voices In The Wilderness"

SUNDAY AT THE DOJO - THOU

This Sunday one of the best metal bands this side of Sunn 0))) and Jesu are playing at the Dojo right here in fucking Naptown. It is an amazing privilage to host Thou on the tour of their incredible "Summit" album. I named that record the "Most Underrated Album Of The Year," when in fact it should have been ranked as one of the best albums of the year period. They are that insanely great and if you sleep on this show, you basically suck. Here is what I said about the modern metal classic "Summit" initially:

Combining the anguished emotionality of Jesu, the art-metal of various Aaron Turner and Sanford Parker projects and the skull crushing doom/sludge of fellow Louisiana legends Eyehategod, Thou crafted one of the most progressive and brutally heavy albums of the year with "Summit." Album opener "By Endurance We Conquer" sounds like it could have been an outtake from Sunn 0)))'s masterful "Monoliths and Dimensions," while "Prometheus" sounds like the saddest Corrupted song ever, all making "Summit" one of the most intense listening experiences of the year, if not the most intense. Yet even in the midst of raw emotion and pummelling riffage, the band ensures that "Summit" contains hooks, twists and turns a plenty so that even if you have listened to the record one hundred times over there is always something new to uncover. In a year where the progressive Agalloch's "Marrow Of The Spirit" ended up on top of so many metal fans' lists, it was hard to understand why the equally adventurous - and for my money thousand times more powerful - Thou was virtually absent from the year end accolades.

"Another World Is Inevitable"


Covering Nirvana "Aneurysm"


"By Endurance We Conquer"


Go see this show, and go demand that Dan order this record for you.

BEST OF 2010 (albums) Most Underrated - Thou - Summit (Gilead Media/Southern Lord)

Combining the anguished emotionality of Jesu, the art-metal of various Aaron Turner and Sanford Parker projects and the skull crushing doom/sludge of fellow Louisiana legends Eyehategod, Thou crafted one of the most progressive and brutally heavy albums of the year with "Summit." Album opener "By Endurance We Conquer" sounds like it could have been an outtake from Sunn 0)))'s masterful "Monoliths and Dimensions," while "Prometheus" sounds like the saddest Corrupted song ever, all making "Summit" one of the most intense listening experiences of the year, if not the most intense. Yet, even in the midst of raw emotion and pummelling riffage, the band ensures that "Summit" contains, hooks, twists and turns a plenty so that even if you have listened to the record one hundred times over there is always something new to uncover. In a year where the progressive Agalloch's "Marrow Of The Spirit" ended up on top of so many metal fans' lists, it was hard to understand why the equally adventurous, and for my money thousand times more powerful, Thou was virtually absent from the year end accolades.