This Will Destroy You - New Others (Parts One and Two)

Four years after their third full-length, Another Language, This Will Destroy You return with a two-part continuation and expansion of the musical ideas they constructed on that album. The halves released separately over the course of a week or so last month, New Others is another, natural, stage of the experimentation on the ambient post-rock the post-metal that the band had burst onto the thriving post-rock scene with.

The band’s debut EP, Young Mountain, and their self-titled LP showed the band more capable and unrestricted in their heaviness than most in the field in building the signature post-rock crescendo from somber, reverb-laden guitar echoes. The band darted quickly to the much more atmospheric, but still captivating and emotional Tunnel Blanket to distance themselves from the quickly staling genre they exploded from.

Three years later, the band began their reshaping of their identity through the forceful expansion of upon their Tunnel Blanket sound into more punchy ideas and a much less ambient atmosphere with the louder and sometimes glitchy experimentation of Another Language. As much as I liked Another Language, it felt as if the band were in a weird spot where they were trying to do new things, but it seemed like they just needed to go further to shake the illusion that they were lost or backpedaling to the comfortable clichés of post-rock. Well, New Others is the more definitive statement they needed to make.

Bringing together a collection of tracks taking a variety of tangents off the general aesthetic Another Language established, some forward, some back, some sideways, This Will Destroy You once again put forth an offering of some of the most refreshingly creative post-rock in recent times.

New Others Part One is probably the more well-rounded of the twin discs, encompassing the band’s past, present, and future from a variety of angles.

Songs like “Syncage” and “Melted Jubilee” take a more energetic and truly bombastic approach to the build of the atmosphere the band creates, while somber slow builders like “Weeping Window” and “To Win Somebody’s Got to Lose” take the band back a bit to their more post-metal days with traditionally cathartic, yet still ambitiously executed crescendos of heavy, ethereal instrumentation.

The band also make sure to work in tracks like the quirkily electronically glitchy, yet still atmospherically conducive “Allegiance” and the industrial background noise beat of the melancholically humming synths of “Like This” to vary their approach.

The first disc closes on probably its least exciting foot, however, the song “Go Away Closer” not really sounding like much more than This Will Destroy You on cruise control through a sentimental scenic route. It’s pretty and cohesive with the rest of the disc, but it’s just such an unsatisfying conclusion that comes off like a lesser amalgamation of the track that came before it. Luckliy, the band had a second set of songs up their sleeve to really finish the job.

New Others Part Two is perhaps a little bit more traditional by volume, but its moments of eccentricity are not to be ignored either. Pieces like the strangely percussive melancholic intro track to the second set of songs, “Sound of Your Death” show the band playing unrestrained, loudly, and without concern for the niceties of post-rock while answering the genre’s questions their own way. 

The band provide a quick example of their ability to arrange a cacophonous, yet understandable melancholy with no adherence to post-rock’s formulas on the short interlude of compounding cymbals and sustained choir echoes that make up the song “Lie Down in the Light”, the second-to-last track, “Promise Land Inc.” serving a similar purpose with what sounds like an old VHS tape recording of a single string motif.

The song “Jesse Ray” is kind of the second half’s breather, wandering around a weird, effects-driven guitar melody that seems to go in circles, pleasingly, but not with any intent of impressing anyone.

The second-longest song between the two records, “Clubs”, takes a pretty similarly bursting approach to the massive opening track, “Little Smoke”, off Tunnel Blanket, providing a nicely structured and certain piece for the album. And aside from its prominent bass lining, the song “Cascade” is a pretty typical post-rock number, but one the band perhaps needed to include to provide a reminder that they can indeed still pull off the old style.

The second disc ends on its heftiest statement, the 11-and-a-half-minute “Provoke”. The song takes its sweet time to get going from the soft, ambient intro, but when the ambient post-metal sludge kicks in, it certainly carries the album to a fulfilling climax that exhales its steam healthily as well with an extended, ambient finish.

Aside from the few moments of predictability for the band, New Others was just the extra oomph they needed and just the degree of diversity their sound needed to solidify the progression they had been making from Another Language, with plenty of homage to their self-titled and Tunnel Blanket thrown in. New Others is a hefty double-disc set because it spends so much time making its rounds to everything the band apparently needed to prove wasn’t a fluke the first time, but also because it makes sure the band gets their time to play with some new sounds and strategies. It was probably a good choice on their part to release the halves separately as the continuous 78-minute product is quite a beast to get through, and the two discs do offer their slightly different overall vibes. Personally, I think I prefer the more ambitious first half, but I could see fans of Tunnel Blanket enjoying the lengthy pieces on the second of the album pair to a similar degree for the familiar atmosphere they provide. This double-album was a pretty nice surprise from This Will Destroy You, and I do hope to catch them on tour again some time soon.