This Will Destroy You
– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER –
This Will Destroy You are a post rock band (although they don’t like to be referred to as a ‘post rock’ band, instead favouring ‘doom metal and shoegaze’, which suits them pretty well to be fair) from Texas who pretty much do one thing and one thing only: play quietly then beat the shit out of their instruments to play loudly, and sometimes they go back to quiet again. You might think this sounds like your typical post rock, sorry, doom metal shoegaze band, and you’d be right, but believe you me, this is no bad thing. Because when done so brutally brilliantly like TWDY do, it’s a thing of absolute beauty.
The band are here with no new album to support; their last one, Another Language, came out in 2014, so it’s pretty much a greatest hits set from their albums and EPs with nothing new (to these ears), and it’s superb from the off. Fronted (essentially – there’s no ‘frontman’ to speak of really) by guitarists Chris King and Jeremy Galindo, the band are almost completely in shadow, avoiding the simple lights around them, tiny head torches perched upon their caps like another set of eyes, constantly gazing down into their equipment, searching for the next item to make noise out of. They start with ‘Dustism’, but in all honesty, the names of songs don’t matter too much tonight, it’s more of a whole piece than anything else. Songs come and go, meld into each other, defined only by a brief pause for enthusiastic applause from the decent sized crowd. The highlight for me is the bruising, thundering climax to ‘War Prayer’, each member of the band thrashing away to create an incredible wall of sound that envelops you like a warm blanket; it’s easy to close your eyes and get lost, have a private moment amongst all these people.
The comparisons are numerous and easy: the loud bits sound a bit like Mogwai, the more electronic passages like heroes 65daysofstatic. But it’s the ‘doom metal’ thing I keep coming back to, because another comparison would be Deafheaven, both in the militant drumming and incredible crescendos, but also in the incredibly pretty quiet parts which sound like Deafheaven’s more ambient moments too. The softer side of TWDY has always been a pull for me, and the barely there opening of ‘Memory Loss’ is one of the loveliest things I’ll hear this side of the Stars of the Lid gig in October. The band are unshowy, lost in their own world of noise, and their leave from and return to the stage is barely noticed, as they ratchet up the volume again for an encore of the ironically named ‘Quiet’ from their first release, the Young Mountain EP. It’s a bit of a fan favourite, and it’s a great way to end a wonderful evening. This band will not destroy you at all; they will make you stronger.
This Will Destroy You Official | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp
