The Body and the Earth

A few years ago I reviewed a little album by a project called thisquietarmy, an ambient drone album with some sharp metal teeth in parts. A few releases later, Eric Quach is back with a new album and some new band members on bass, synths, and trumpet. With more musicians, his sound is more expansive, and there's also a lot more consistent rhythm here than in Anthems for Catharsis. But the abrasive synth buzz and the giant-sized bass are still with us. The Body and the Earth isn't a metal album, but it's dark enough to appeal to many metal listeners. The album starts out without a lot of surprises for those who have explored Quach's sizable past discography. Dreamy and introspective, the songs have a dark undercurrent that occasionally rises up in a sharp edge before getting submerged again beneath flowing synths and clean, heavily processed guitar plunking. The trumpet comes in on Sixth Mass, playing lazy jazz riffs that come in and out like the tide. As the song progresses, the bass work gets heavier and the drumming more focused, until a melody grows organically. Seismic Waves turns up the warmth of the synth, the horn still droning forlornly on in the background as the noisy bass and guitar get louder and more purposeful, feedback leaking around the bassline. The sound of The Body and the Earth, for all its use of synths, breaks out of the electronic feel some of its predecessors had and moves more towards psychedelic territory, at times almost moving into psychedelic rock territory (at least, if you doubled the speed). Algal Bloom is the most melodic and approachable of all the songs on an album that is geared to experimental tastes; starting with a simple four-note melody down the scale, it builds it up on top of electronic noise and retro-sounding synthesizer work to an epic scale. The Body and the Earth may sound like the product of an army -- but it's not quiet. Bandcamp: https://thisquietarmy.bandcamp.com/album/the-body-and-the-earth.