“I come from the mountain, I return again”, warns Thee Oh Sees’ frontman John Dwyer on the opening track of their latest release.
The band certainly return with a demonic vengeance on Floating Coffin, signalling their arrival with a wall of roaring, amped guitars.
It’s not as if they’ve ever left – their latest release is the San Fransico band’s seventh full-length in six years, and the twelfth in their career that now spans over two decades.
Proving themselves to be masters of genre amalgamation, their sound has undergone yet another phase of metamorphosis. Their sonic mutation, this time around, sees the elements of their garage arsenal dripping in a thick, distorted sludge.
Between the deafening blares of powerhouse instrumentals, murderous thematic undertones lie concealed between layers of distortion, giving the record a dark sense of bloodlust.
‘Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster’ is ripe with utterly infectious, foot-tapping power chords that eventually give way for Dwyer’s ethereally echoed falsetto, before the heavy whirling drone seizes back control.
‘No Spell’ provides a break from menacing grunge soundscapes, opting for more mellow chords and guitar solos giving the listener a bit of a breather before the punk-like anarchism rolls on with the charged ‘Strawberries 1 + 2’.
The pulsating double-kick drum of ‘Night Crawler’ grinds the album to a slow, vibrating pace. It experiments with electronic synthesisers which perfectly compliment Dwyer’s warped vocal effects, possibly hinting at a direction Thee Oh See’s next aural modification might take.
Floating Coffin oozes eclecticism; an impressive ode to Thee Oh Sees’ consistently evolving sound which has become synonymous with the realm of psych, whilst continuing to redefine its boundaries.
