Description

Black vinyl with insert and poster

The longest period between two albums is finally over and the wait has been worth it, to say the least. Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism is the best album the Birmingham bruisers have released in years, if not their entire career. The album touches upon the various eras of the band’s storied career. It’s overflowing with the rapid-fire intensity that’s simply inherent to who they are and references their more industrial-influenced and experimental periods (think 1994’s Fear, Emptiness, Despair and 1996’s Diatribes). Acting In Gouged Faith is a barrage of blasting and barking, occasionally offering reprieves by way of d-beat groove. Album closer A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen lumbers forth with an industrial and goth groove as well as the clanging dissonance of Einsturzende Neubauten. As they’ve progressed from album to album, each step has made sense. But Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism isn’t merely an extension of a relatively recent album like 2012’s Utilitarian. The album entails the key aspects and qualities of older releases, and has actually increased the frantic nature of its approach whilst simultaneously and paradoxically serving the onslaught with a methodical and precise sense of purpose. The shards of the seemingly random fracas piece together into a whole that ultimately makes sense. Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism is chaos theory put to music. Grindcore purists, craving carbon copies of Napalm’s earliest work, can be some of the most stubborn in all of music, but the band has already written Scum and From Enslavement To Obliteration. Mindlessly serving old food to this base would be easy. That would be selling out. Embury and company have stood the test of time because of their legitimate passion for music, creativity and reaching toward uncharted waters. That’s why we now have an album as beautiful and powerful as Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism.

Track list:
1. Fuck The Factoid
2. Backlash Just Because
3. That Curse Of Being In Thrall
4. Contagion
5. Joie De Ne Pas Vivre
6. Invigorating Clutch
7. Zero Gravitas Chamber
8. Fluxing Of The Muscle
9. Amoral
10. Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
11. Acting In Gouged Faith
12. Air’s Turned Foul In Here
13. A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen