Press and Radio
Aversion
Low: The Great Destroyer
Matt Schild
While most people know Low for one thing - playing very, very slowly - the band"s lethargic tempos clouded one key issue: Despite the glacial tempos and plodding dynamics of slowcore, Low still commanded a lot of power.
After a few albums dallying with expanding its repertoire, on The Great Destroyer, Low ups the tempos and casts a new light on its sound. While The Great Destroyer certainly won"t be played in skate parks or featured in the soundtrack to the next XGames, Low lights the metaphorical fire under its ass and picks things up this time out. Despite the still moderate tempos (we"re still talking Low, after all), spacious arrangements and encumbered, heavyset guitar and bass parts, Low shows it has everything it needs to rock your socks off.
As to be expected, The Great Destroyer opts for heaviness over hardness. "Everybody"s Song" whips up a hurricane of buzzing, fuzzy guitars and bass, roaring feedback and gut-rumbling rhythms that could easily be mistaken for the work of a four-on-the-floor rock act. "Step" backs off the riffery, instead putting a muffled blanket of fuzz behind a crisp guitar that gives way to a surprisingly cheerful chorus. "Just Stand Back" and "On the Edge Of" make translucent allusions to lonely roots rock, with rambling and lonely guitars that fight through the din of distortion and other noisy textures, while "Walk into the Sea" slaps Low"s clangy and corroded production values all over melodies and vocal harmonies that, in different circumstances could be sunshine-baked left-Coast pop from the likes of The Thrills or The Shins.
The Great Destroyer hasn"t completely dismissed the band"s slowcore past, however. Although not nearly as measured as the band"s painstakingly deliberate early numbers, "Sliver Rider" gallops through a spacious arrangement only to explode into a full-blown distorto-pop arrangement at its end. The acoustic "Death of a Salesman" scrapes off the crust and grime that usually clings to the band"s instruments for a poignant tale of a professional dismally regretting his decision to forget his musical ambitions and join the rat race. "Broadway (So Many People)" ebbs and flows with gentle rhythms and tidal arrangements, in a languid, mature update of the band"s slowcore formula.
Maybe it took an album like The Great Destroyer to awaken the world to Low"s other talents, as it obviously had a lot of skills beside playing slowly that we"d overlooked. Harnessing the latent power of its days as slowcore icons, Low calls attention to its versatility and songwriting panache on The Great Destroyer with a set that"s sure to get fans thinking differently about it.
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