TITHE - Penance
July 14, 2020, 3 years ago
(Tartarus)
Portland's Tithe lay down a fantastic, cantankerous, sludge-laden take on crusted-over grind here on excellent debut album Penance, bringing to mind bands like Brainoil or Ludicra, not in the latter's avant-black stylings, but in how they brought to mind images of a rotting, decaying city through their music; here, Tithe are grinding over to the jam spot, but it's in a really horrible part of town, so you get the tour on the way, the band at points sounding like they wouldn't sound out of place at a power violence gig, at other points sounding like they could easily sit next to Xibalba at a medium-size theatre DM show.
Love that snare sound, the slightly raw and unpredictable nature of it really bringing the best out of grinders like the unhinged “Mantra” or the ultra-slow sludge turmoil of “Apostasy”... Man, right down to Eyehategod-loving closer “Lullaby”, this album is just pure gold, ugly, corrosive, hitting all the sweet spots, runtime perfect, production perfect, vibe perfect, songs perfect.
