This Will Destroy You
This Will Destroy You

Fortunately/Unfortunately, they couldn't destroy a fly.


Post-rock is beginning to become stale. Of course, other music websites (cough) have declared the genre "dead" for a few years now, but now it's slowly starting to happen. Due to the generalization of the genre that the chord progressions are easy, the music slow and plodding, and without the need for lyrics, post-rock bands have become like the sands of the Earth. This Will Destroy You's debut EP, Young Mountain, was a fine collection of songs to be sure, but as by-the-numbers as countless other bands working today.

With their self-titled first official full-length album, This Will Destroy You have somewhat miraculously carved their own name out of a genre plagued with pale imitators. "A Three-Legged Workhorse" begins with a gentle feedback noise, slowly gaining intensity until an almost Massive Attack-esque electronic beat brings in the classic "post-rock" guitar, crescendoing into a beautiful (though typical) distorted rock-out. By-the-numbers, but with a few surprises along the way.

Next comes "Villa Del Refugio", and here's where listeners not up for this particular journey will be weeded out. A purely ambient 7-minute piece of delicately pulsing electronics, it's hauntingly gorgeous. Explosions of the Sky and Mono fan boys will become impatient, however, as they sit and wait for a release that isn't going to happen. "Threads" follows with a fairly standard Explosions-style build up, only to surprise us with a further blast of energy over two-thirds into the song. It has become clear that where most post-rock bands have become about the destination, or the "release", This Will Destroy You focus their efforts into the long and winding road to get there.

After the quick "Leather Wings", which has no big release at all, we find "The Mighty Rio Grande", the album's longest song. After 5 minutes of an expertly gradual build-up, it simply drops out back into ambient electronics. Once the guitar and drums are slowly re-instated, a second build-up slowly begins, and more intensely than before - but after 11 minutes, the song ends with no true "big moment".

The electronic beats return in "They Move On Tracks Of Never-Ending Light " for seven minutes of wandering beauty that doesn't even bother to build or crescendo at all. That is finally accomplished in the album closer, "Burial On The Presidio Banks". What makes this track such a satisfying ending is the fact that it's the only full-fledged bombastic rock-out after the first track. The album carries an elegant, graceful arc; starting and ending big, and holding an emotional tale in between. Most post-rock bands (such as Explosions) show their big guns right out of the gate, and keep it going throughout the length of the album. What This Will Destroy You have done is made an album-long crescendo, and for those with plenty of patience, the experience is truly rewarding.

This Will Destroy You don't rock out frequently enough to become the next Explosions In The Sky, but with this accomplished debut album they will win over many fans of ambient and minimalist music; not that they play either genre, but that they loosely play "post-rock" with the mind-frame of ambient composers. These songs are expertly crafted and perfectly produced, and while it may not be completely original, for those who've been choked up lately it's a long deep breath of fresh air.

Grade: B

http://www.myspace.com/thiswilldestroyyou

1. A Three-Legged Workhorse
2. Villa Del Refugio
3. Threads
4. Leather Wings
5. The Mighty Rio Grande
6. They Move On Tracks Of Never-Ending Light
7. Burial On The Presidio Banks