This Will Destroy You
This Will Destroy You
2008

For whatever reason, post-rock can be terribly depressing and often moves slower than a fat chick in gym class. Yet somehow, This Will Destroy You’s self titled full-length debut avoids all that in likely one of the best post-rock albums I’ve heard in years.

Much like Explosions in the Sky, they focus entirely on instrumentation with no vocals and a minimalist sound scape, but the comparison stops there. There is build up in these songs and they are not going to challenge Dragon Force for a speed record, but as far as post-rock goes, the precision and the focus this band exhibits really sets a new bar. Every song has it’s place, nothing sounds out of sync and while the songs compliment and flow into one another, nothing ever sounds repetitious or dull.

The recording itself is impeccable. With over-dubbed and audio loop happy bands like Radiohead drowning out the instruments in favour of dyslexic mumblings, it’s nice to actually hear musicians play. The guitars are thick and weighty, the drums are heavy and sharp and the occasional background texture is subtle and never overpowering. Everything is clear and crisp without exception.

Be forewarned, this album isn’t for the developmentally challenged that need every inch of audio punched to the nine, but with that in mind it still hits hard enough and does it frequently enough to make This Will Destroy You stand out from the pack. There’s no filler, no waste; just one of the best post-rock albums to come along in a very long time.

Stream A Three-Legged Workhorse, Threads and Burial On The Presidio Banks (myspace)