(2021) Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - The Helm of Sorrow EP


Review:
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou’s 2020 collaborative album May Our Chambers Be Full was a marriage of intensities, bringing together vocalist/guitarist Rundle’s gifts for dark melodic atmospheres with Louisiana ensemble Thou’s thick and sludgy doom metal. The album paired Rundle’s controlled, shadowy vocals with wraithlike screams from Thou’s Bryan Funck, and explored moments of floating dreaminess not unlike early 4AD output that turned on a dime to psychedelic alt-rock guitar riffing or blasts of black metal-inspired power. May Our Chambers Be Full was a brief seven-song set that lasted just 36 minutes, and companion EP The Helm of Sorrow feels like the missing links that would extend May Our Chambers from its streamlined presentation into something epic. Opening track “Orphan Limbs” grows from a drawn-out segment of understated and gothic neo-folk ambience into a short but brutal crescendo of metallic bombast. The other three songs waver between sections of intense doom metal and quiet, moody goth rock, with “Hollywood” being the most dynamic of the bunch. Rundle’s haunted vocal presence serves as an exciting counterpoint for Thou’s unmitigated aggression, and when the two come together on moments like the crawling grief of “Crone Dance,” the collaboration becomes bigger than the sum of its parts. Taken on its own, The Helm of Sorrow is a fine addendum to May Our Chambers Be Full, but adding these four songs to the seven tracks of its predecessor enhances the listening experience for all the material. The collaborators’ willingness to take their songs unexpected places and shift gears multiple times within a single track is one of their most interesting attributes. The Helm of Sorrow continues to push the boundaries of their genre experimentation, and lands in even heavier territory.





Tracklist:
01 - Orphan Limbs
02 - Crone Dance
03 - Recurrence
04 - Hollywood


Media Report:
Genre: hard rock/heavy metal, post-rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits