During the early 2020s, the boundary-pushing duo
the Body
changed course a bit. They reduced their setup for 2021's
I've Seen All I Need to See
, which ended up closer to death industrial and power electronics than metal, and generally left distortion behind for their collaboration with
BIG|BRAVE
, which consisted of interpretations of folk songs. They also ventured further into electronic music, occasionally touching on warped club music, on their albums with
OAA
and
Dis Fig
. 2024's
The Crying Out of Things
is acknowledged by the band as a culmination of their previous work, and it does feel like a return to the maximalism of their particularly stellar run of albums throughout the 2010s. Two elements that stand out on the release are
Dan Blacksburg
's majestic horn arrangements and the various secondary vocals, which range from disembodied mutterings to truly unnerving looped shrieks. Improbably,
seems like it might be
's noisiest effort to date, yet even as the music attacks and scorches, there's still room for nuanced details. The incredible "Careless and Worn" buries a doom metal procession in a blitzkrieg of noise so overwhelming it nearly chokes, clearing out to cover the song's horns in dubby echo. "A Premonition" has an unsettling screech looped underneath the entire song, accelerating as the rhythm kicks into thundering breakbeats by the end. "Less Meaning" filters its chaos with choppy staccato editing, eventually crashing through in a cathartic release.
returns on "The Building," writhing through a haunted tunnel before arriving at crunching guitars, cracking drums, and
Chip King
's signature overdriven howling. The bleak, sorrowful "All Worries" seems to incorporate Gregorian chanting, building to a cinematic crest with
J Mamanas
' string arrangements.
is a powerful high point in
's massive discography. ~ Paul Simpson