What we have here is a stinking, festering, mossy slab of sludge.  From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, no less.  With Peasant, Thou  prestents six tracks of fuzzy, yet heavy doom.  It’s really nothing we’ve never heard before, but they do some things pretty well (though not often enough).  Like a lot of new doom acts, Thou is sort of a genre blender mixing classic southern sludge with post-rock and extra bluesy riffs.  Yeah, I know blues isn’t anything new to the genre, but I swear, some of these riffs sound like a Muddy Waters tune.  Unfortunately, they don’t quite blend enough.

Opening track “The Work Ethic Myth” had my hope up pretty high.  Its like a mix between Graves At Sea and Pelican.  The lilting, bittersweet melody is really effective.  However, without many turns in the songwritting and just being under 6 minutes, it does try my patience.  Second cut “An Age Imprisoned” introduces that bluesy stuff I was talking about. It’s actually kind of happy.  Reminds me of Jesu a little bit.  Unfortunately that riff only shows up twice in the entire 11 minutes of this track.  The closing 3 minutes are pretty cool, though. A droning, feedback ridden funeral dirge which makes you wonder if it’ll ever end (in a good way).

“Belt of Fire to Guid Me Cloak of Night to Hide Me” didn’t really strike me as anything too special.  Just some more heavy sludge riffing.  There is a nice slow down section in the middle that does well to add vartiation in the songwritting.   “Burning Black Coals And Dark Memories” marks a return of the post-rock influence.  The first half of this track is really quite wonderful.  After a soft, plodding opening, it explodes into a downpour of meloncholly.  Unfortunately, the second half is back to the same ol’ sludge as usual.  Last two tracks “They Stretch Out Their Hands” and “The Road of Many Names” are pretty much the same deal.  No frills, monotonous doom.  Though, the closing to “The Road…” is pretty sweet.  Shrill, staticy feedback rings out and fades as a solitary melody is played on a clean guitar, which also fades in time.  Thought that was a pretty haunting closer.

If you’re just looking for sludgy doom, then look no further.  These guys deliver.  But if you’re looking for something more, don’t bother.  Peasant comes really close to being something special, if they’d only have gone the extra mile.  More blues and MUCH more post-rock influence could have made this a stand out album.  Like a Jambalaya without enough spice, it really doesn’t stand out.  Just the same old sludge, unfortunately (wow, I’ve said that word a lot in this review).

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments