Records of the Week

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU OFFICIAL SITE

This particular Texas instrumental four-piece have consistently eschewed the doctrine put forth by their titan Texan brethren Explosions in the Sky, and substantially altered their aims, goals, and musical styles from each album to album. We have seen TWDY progress from then new-darlings of southern post-rock in the release of their debut Young Mountain, through experimenting with greater use of ambient and drone elements in their eponymous sophomore effort from 2008, to the purposeful bucking of all sounds bright and shiny in 2011′s Tunnel Blanket. Refusing to abide by and use the term “post-rock” any longer, TWDY now call themselves “doom-gaze,” and this turn of tide towards melancholy, dark, and anger is very readily heard in what seems to be the culmination of the band’s transformation. Opener “Little Smoke” traverses territory of longing strings and rhodes piano, crushes listeners with one of the heaviest and most fuzzed-out passages they have employed thus far, and back again. “Glass Realms” serves as an ambient showcase of why you shouldn’t call them post-rock anymore, and as a segue into lead single “Communal Blood.” Later highlight track “Black Dunes” dishes another heavy-handed and slow-tempo blow to the notion that TWDY won’t actually destroy anything, and the whole cathartic affair ends on the mostly soft and ambient “Hand Powered.” Young Mountain was critically acclaimed, yes, but not for the sound for which this band wants to be known. Tunnel Blanket is a rejection of classification, a redefinition of personal musical ethos, and a rejuvenation of This Will Destroy You.