Thrice - The Earth Will Shake
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A reader comment on yesterday's Wrnlrd review got me thinking about how American metal has largely omitted American traditional music. Europe has loads of "folk metal" (which often seems to be just racist folk music), Brazil has/had Sepultura, Taiwan has Chthonic with their erhu. A few American counterparts come to mind - Across Tundras, Earth, Resistant Culture - and Southern sludge metal occasionally throws in the odd country or blues lick. But pre-amplification American music is mostly unexplored in metal, perhaps because the latter is so dependent on electricity. Metal could mine this ground, though. There is much darkness in America's (musical) history, and what better vessel for darkness than metal?
Yesterday I stumbled across a stunning example of what I'm talking about. It comes from Thrice's Vheissu, my favorite record of 2005. The source is most unlikely; until that point, Thrice was a straightforward metalcore band (albeit a skilled one). Their fans must have gotten a nasty surprise upon discovering that the band had become an amalgam of Isis, Tool, and Radiohead. I, for one, welcomed the change, and the band has flexed their new muscles with lovely results on their Alchemy Index recordings. Vheissu is full of revelations, the most revelatory being "The Earth Will Shake." Neurosis would be jealous of most of it; at 2:52, it breaks wide open with old-time chain gang singing. It's O Brother, Where Art Thou?, complete with freedom narrative:
We dream of ways to break these iron bars
We dream of black nights without moon or stars
We dream of tunnels and of sleeping guards
We dream of blackouts in the prison yard
Then it drops into a neck-snapping 7/4, as Teppei Teranishi flings plangent chords skywards. The 27 year-old multi-instrumentalist orchestrates Thrice's beautiful arrangements; I don't hesitate to call him a genius. Who would have guessed that some kids from Orange County would provide metal's most convincing throwback to 19th century America?
Labels: clee, post-metal, usa
7 Comments:
DANZIG!
a good example of what you are talking about i think might be Steve Von Till's If I Should Fall To The Field.....
Nice too see other metalheads diggin Thrice. Vheissu up there with Anthems, for me.
I was floored by Vheissu, too -- with "For Miles" being the high point. The first Alchemy Index was a lil' underwhelming in comparison.
There's so much great "heavy" southern blues out there - every single power trio from the late-60s comes to mind, and let's not forget that Gov't Mule has done some killer Black Sabbath covers - that I feel like it shouldn't be such a huge leap from American folk to metal. I think Dax Riggs gets pretty close on parts of his last album.
Good point about the Gov't Mule, Etan. I really need to check up on what they've done recently. I haven't heard the Dax Riggs record and evidently need to do so.
Currently listening to the new U.S. Christmas album which does psychedelic country in a metal way. Check out the 4th track "Silent Tongue" if you can.
What I've heard of U.S. Christmas has been extremely promising - I'll definitely need to check them out further.
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