Thema Eleven are from the Czech Republic, and their sound is rooted in crust but also incorporates elements of sludge and 'post-hardcore' (neo-crust? shit...I don't know...) by which I mean that their songs on occasion featured extended instrumental sections and do not necessarily conform to standard verse-chorus-verse stuff (and if you've got some more satisfactory term sure and let me know)- elements of their sound & dynamics remind me of Lvmen, an excellent Czech band that I'm quite fond of, though Thema Eleven are more vocal-heavy.
Dark and moody stuff with a nice mix of heavy walls of sound, at times pretty instrumentation, good loud-soft dynamics & vocals which are more anguished than enraged. The tracks are punctuated with creepy spoken-word samples that help to set the tone: very bleak but occasionally beautiful stuff.
Their follow-up to this, The Great Misanthrope, is as good if not better, and they've also made a plethora of split & compilation appearances.
CHOOSE YOUR BEAST
2 comments:
Pretty good live too! I got The Great Misanthrope after a gig of theirs back in July or so.
Nice, I'd like to check them live out if I have a chance, though I don't think they've been stateside.
So many of the bands I like are from far-away lands and mostly tour locally- since I left Tokyo there's a lot less show's I want to see, and I'm just not all that in to most of what's going on in my area these days.
Post a Comment