Throat sound like they should be some awful metalcore, sample driven, knuckleheaded cagoule wearing, tight jeans wearing blot on the heavy music horizon band, but luckily for me (and you) they’re not that at all. In fact, what these glorious Finnish boys are, are a band that have my name written all over them (well not literally, as my name is Nick and not Throat, but still, the point is valid and worth making at least in my eyes).
I have explored in ramblings posted on here (that have long since been condemned to the Ave Noctum cellars of blood) and extrapolated upon my personal tastes in terms of the music before and whilst I would not for one hot minute consider myself a barometer of what’s good, bad or simply indifferent in any shape, way or form, I do like to think, that I have a relatively open mind when it comes to the myriad of branches, sub-branches, roots, bark, leaves and sap that collectively make up the great tree of rock and metal. And one of the best things about contributing (if it can be classified as such) to this esteemed website, is that your preconceptions and tastes are put to the test every single week.
And so, onto Throat, a Finnish band with two full releases under their collective belt and it’s a rollocking old affair it must be said. Listening back to their previous musical output, it’s not the noise rock that I had been promised (by the ultimate in lying constructs…the record label). Maybe that’s my problem, but when I think of noise (rock or metal) I am generally thinking of something terrifying and undulating like an ulcerating leg wound pulsing with filth, baby maggots and sadness. So, this is ‘noise’ in perhaps a more polite but no less exciting sense. A joyful, jiggling your marrow and playing with your nipples type of exciting. It’s dark and deadly, but stealthy like an assassin quietly going about his business with a garotte and a sharpened pencil rather than a blitzkrieg or carpet-bombing approach to noise warfare. Stealthy, brooding, oily and hip shakingly skanky.
Throat do meander through quite a musical journey, but it goes deep into places that I like a lot. It has touches of Queens of the Stone Age, offset with the heavier parts of fellow Scandinavians Refused. It jiggles and convulses like a jelly in a swimsuit, delicate guitars pick at your eyelids with whispered breathy vocals, that segue into aggressive, walls of guitars and the merest hint of samples laying about in the background like a pissed dog in the sun. It’s like the heavier moments of Faith No More covered by Torche and remixed by Trent Reznor. If that sounds like fun, then it is, but it’s also bleak, dense, uncomfortable and to use the Finnish expression, synkät näkymät which roughly translates as ‘no hope to be found here’.
I like this album very much, it’s like someone has taken some of my favourite bands and put them into a supergroup of sorts and got them to play my favourite songs. The atmosphere is suitably dark and mischievous, but I am also a big fan of the way this collection of songs sounds. You can hear the scraping of the plectrum on some of the guitars, you can hear and feel, the squeak of the bass drum pedal as it massacres the bass drum and the vocals drip with menace and disharmony. That said there are brighter moments on some of the songs on offer here that offer a welcome respite from some of the bleakness. The pounding, almost tribal drums, offer a duvet onto which the guitars spew forth their resentment, indignation, and temper. There is a real mixture of styles and song writing encased within ‘Smile Less’ and it’s a wholly enjoyable journey. Throat may have been on the periphery of the world’s attention before this album, but if there is any justice in the world, this new album will bring them to everyone’s wider attention. I’ll make not apologies for leaving you with a sentence that may have come from the band (I hope so) and not their nefarious PR agency (I hope not) that describes the band as thus –
‘Four people. Guitars. Bass. Drums. Voice. Volume and feedback since 2009’.
Perfect
(8.5/10 Nick Griffiths)
Leave a Reply