Album Review: The Body - The Crying Out Of Things
Reviewed by Rob Barker
The Body return with their 8th studio release, The Crying Out Of Things. The Body are one of those bands that when you hear for the first time, you immediately have to go to your mates who are also into weird heavy shit and tell them about them, hoping you got there first. Expectations are high with this one, and they don’t disappoint by once again pushing the boundaries of what can be expected from heavy music. The album starts off with the pounding jungle drums of Last Things, ALMOST (dare I utter it…) with a Nu Metal intro vibe (but good!). The signature banshee vocals and harsh harsh harsh tones kick in with wind-tunnel-deafening and distorted levels, moving on to Removal with its continued industrial soundscapes, imaginable in a dystopian stop-motion horror flick.
Careless and Worn next: I’m really loving the distorted “too loud” sound of this album so far, and the intro to Careless and Worn is the most powerful example of this. A Premonition sounds like a rollercoaster of death, with vocals akin to the fucked up slide guitar on a Swans track. Less Meaning is next, now; do you ever get it when something reminds you of something else, and you know damn well that it’s a really weird thing it reminds you of and that it’s really likely that if you vocalise what it reminds you of people will look at you gone out? Well here goes… this track sounds to me like a totally fucked, ruined cassette with an Andrew WK song on it. Now don’t get me wrong, this is a LONG way from a party-rock album. But damn, just something about the upbeat pulse of this one takes me there!
Interlude vibes done right with The Citadel Unconquered. Because of the strange nature of this album in the first place, this track, whilst shorter and more of … break(?) doesn’t seem out of place as a similar track might do on another album. End of Line next, with some serious, serious mood, and I’d argue also some serious groove. My personal favourite from the album. The Building is a truly horrifying, supernatural soundscape, leading from there into the finale, All Worries. This album finishes exactly how it should. Slow, plodding, crushing, disturbing and heavy as hell. It’s arguably a cliché to use vaguely religious-sounding monk chants in a dark, nasty album, but there’s a reason; it works well, and fits the despair perfectly.
I mentioned earlier about horror movies. The best way I can describe this album… the musical equivalent of the film Mad God. For those who know, you know, and as a quick side note anyone into their weird horror who hasn’t seen it check it out. Then listen to this album again and tell me I’m wrong! It’s intentionally jarring, uncomfortable, and frankly fucking disgusting in some places. It’s so good!
My favourites from the album – Careless and Worn; End of Line
Reminds me of – Khlyst, Full of Hell, The Goslings, The Locust
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