"We Are All the Antichrist" blitzes forward with a serpentine riff, time signature transforming perpetually, before landing finally in a bed of euphoric chugging. Sludgy and fiery, the song rocks like Mastodon at its hardest and contains one of the best rhymes of the year: "Decompose with your bros." The song's second half is crowned by the unmistakable vocals of Capra's Crow Lotus. "Her performance pushes this song over the edge in the best way," says TGLH founder and frontman, James Woodard. "Raw, intense, and exactly what it needed."
All eight tracks on HEAVY rage forth with the same weight and momentum as the lead single. As the title suggests, HEAVY is heavy. A newcomer might assume that the brand of math-rock-meets-sludge-core on display here is the band's one and only trick, but the reality is more complex. TGLH is a shapeshifter and HEAVY is one specific milestone in a winding career.
A journey through the back catalog reveals an adventurous project, operating on two fronts. "TGLH has always been a band with two sides; one side, this super heavy thing and the other side, more cinematic or post-rock," states Woodard, TGLH's sole constant member, who began making work under the TGLH banner in 2009 and has since enlisted an extensive cast of musicians to help him execute his visions – including a slew of music released and shows played with the likes of Chat Pile, Metz, and Yob.
Entirely instrumental albums such as 2014's All Sadness, Grinning Into Flow and 2017's Cavern – the soundtrack to a short film, created with the help of Bob Catlin (Pigface, Psychic TV) – saw Woodard exploring meditative, ambient realms. ("Movies, and their soundtracks, are a huge inspiration for me," says Woodard. "I collect them and have easily over 1,000 movies. It’s a sickness.") Simultaneously, a crushing, metallic sound was being honed and Woodard eventually introduced his vocals into the mix, a direction exemplified by 2021's A Cult That Worships a God of Death.
Now, with HEAVY, Woodard – backed by the ace musicianship of guitarist James Cameron Taylor, bassist Oscar Moreno, and drummers Steven Barrera and Luke Zachary Mitchell – has chosen to commit fully to his metallic tendencies. With power and finesse, Woodard and his cronies rock relentlessly and keep the adrenaline in the red.
"TGLH has always presided between two worlds," states Woodard. "One, where we strive to be as heavy as possible, using the power of The Riff, destructively percussive rhythms, dissonance, aggression, and extreme levels of distortion and feedback, to create music that strives to overwhelm the senses. The other, a more somber and delicate approach, strives to create emotive music that lifts the listener and propels them on a journey inward. This album, HEAVY, as its title unsubtly suggests, is firmly rooted in the former... HEAVY is the most uniformly heavy record that we have created to date."
He elaborates: "I really wanted to challenge myself on this album. Some of the songs are the most difficult songs to perform, I’ve ever written in this band. They’re also a love letter to my inspirations. You’ll hear Sepultura and Napalm Death homages on this record, if you are familiar with their stuff and listen closely."
For a man whose past musical output has been largely instrumental, Woodard has a lot to say on HEAVY. Songs such as "We Are All the Antichrist" paint pictures of existential horror, applicable to both the personal and political realms. "A recurring theme throughout our stuff is the decline of America," he says. "The cruelty of the system and the apathy that it breeds." Fittingly, the band's name comes from the pages of the Philip K. Dick classic, The Man in the High Castle, a work of alternative history wherein the Axis Powers won the Second World War.
While HEAVY represents a new pinnacle of heaviness in this project's long unfolding story, Woodard lets it be known that TGLH is still a multi-faceted beast with at least two sides to its personality: "If you miss the introspective, cinematic side of things, well, you'll just have to wait for the next album," he says.
Tracklist:
1) Human Claymore 2) Lyrics are Hard 3) We Are All the Antichrist 4) Tallow Man 5) Cure 1997 6) Cubicle Man 7) Labyrinth 8) Maze
Lineup:
James Woodard - guitar, vocals James Cameron Taylor - guitar Oscar Moreno - bass Steven Barrera - drums Luke Zachary Mitchell - drums
