There can’t be many things in life that are less embarrassing than looking back at past version of yourself and realising that hubris, although a word I rarely deploy in any shape, way of form, is not something that you want to step in and smear on the underside of your three-year-old, badly worn New Balance trainers. And it’s not like I have undergone some kind of spiritual catastrophe or endured a Ebenezer Scrooge styled, road to Damascus journey back through my life to reflect, regret and address past wrongs, no, it’s that moment when you have been forced to read past reviews of bands that are now back in front the of the public court of opinion. And as such Finnish band, Throat release this their third album unto the world and looking back through my review of their last album (2021s ‘Smile Less’,) the enthusiastic hyperbole comes thick and fast like a twenty-two-year-old porn actor/actress on their first ‘assignment’ of the day. Further reflection dates this review in the guts of the second national lockdown in June 2021, as Covid smothered the country and changed life for so many of us. So, I will put some of the gushing down to a nationalised hibernated state of mind, where any goodness in the world was to be extracted with extreme prejudiced and milked to within an inch of its life (I’ll avoid further porn film comparisons for now). I called their last album ‘perfect’ despite only given it eight out of ten, so as far as being a reliable and conscientious ’reviewer’, I would say my credentials and objectivity were, at the time, partially compromised.
But Throat had caught my attention, and it was the gothic tinged, indie mechanics of the band that came across as the bastard child of Faith No More and New Model Army with just enough rock and metallic moments, that piqued me. Here on their new album, the band have signposted their intent to further distance themselves from their ’noisier’ past and as such, have divested yet more of their rocker moments and further mined their brooding, casket cold, mechanical yet somehow warm goth, rock anthemic rock. Ploughing through the album, there isn’t what would be considered a real stand out moment, rather the album represents a methodical journey through a frigid, iced bejewelled forest via a team of huskies, that dips, slides, drops and skids along, enveloping you in its milky clock of impassioned vocals and jangling guitars.
It’s a delicate and emotional collection of songs, and whilst not offering much in the way of divergence from a musicality perspective during its seven tracks, the songs all have a certain something to them, as it meanders around your head, sets up camp, toasts a marshmallow and lays back in a crunchy bed of leaves and smokes a cigarette laced with LSD. It’s very chilled, glacial all tribal, pounding tom toms and shimmering Johnny Marr styled guitars, cutting through the thick, molasses like bass and haunted, vocals, that sound like a fire and brimstone preacher, spraying his congregation with bile, whiskey fumes and lies. It’s like Johhny Cash signing Cure songs as part of a soundtrack to a Nicolas Winding Refn film played by Rammstein without the pyrotechnics.
Throat have made the quite the statement with this album. It has taken the band on a musical journey that has seen them steer away from the rockier paths of their previous material and embraced the more electronically smeared indie/rock/pop roots. It’s not quite a volte face but when you compare this new musical direction with what has come before, it’s pretty stark from a comparable music genre perspective. The keyboard washes and stabbing electronic flourishes are more considered and polished when compared with their heavier Filter or Torche flavoured previous material. It’s certainly a bold move and, for that, the band should be applauded. Question is, will it alienate their current fanbase? Well, it’s a change that’s one hundred percent noticeable but given the journey that Throat have been on, I think most of their fans will be expecting this. I am going to lift a sentence that I ended my last review of Throat as an aide memoir/denouement to my musings which I think sum up my feelings about the band and this album in particular –
I’ll make no 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’.
(8.5/10 Nick Griffiths)
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