Thumos: The Republic

Thumos are a US progressive post-metal band who have just unleashed their debut full length release The Republic, which the band reliably inform us is an instrumental adaptation of Plato's highly influential dialogue of the same name, with one song for each book. High falutin stuff and no mistake, but in actuality this is incredibly well realised stuff from a band who obviously have quite strong visions of what they wish to achieve. Now, genre tags are strange old things, because the band themselves do indeed describe their sound as progressive post-metal, but for me leaving the word doom out of that already convoluted descriptor does them a disservice.

In reality though, none of that would matter if the hour-plus instrumental precision brutality didn’t stack up, but by heck it does and then some, the ten ‘books’ able to truly explode with a sense of place and purpose. Having no vocals involved really does leave everything open and exposed, because less overtly progressive tracks in an instrumental setting can often find you slowly losing interest as proceedings play out. Here, however, you remain riveted and as fully involved during, for example, the grating and grinding track eight, “The Regimes�, as you do the howling thunder of opening cut “The Unjust�. Drama and excitement are created in a variety of ways, with discordant passages used to break up some intensely clever grooves and an altogether more intricate framework, leaving you almost breathless as “The Ring� takes you through its different cycles and leads you to a hugely rewarding conclusion.

Impressively, there isn’t a chink of weakness anywhere to be found, with clever little melodic motifs hidden in plain sight to ensure that you are rewarded for staying the course through some of the overtly challenging sections. The result is an album that impresses right from its opening movements and simply never lets that standard slip from there. For my money The Republic will appeal hugely to anyone with even a passing interest in the more cerebral end of the progressive, post-rock, doom scene and should also extend into the realm of any open minded heavy music enthusiast. Thumos have made a mighty impression with their first full length release and with a compilation of some of their earlier standalone works also about to be unleashed, 2022 could well be their year. More releases like this one and this might well be their decade.

Track Listing
1. The Unjust
2. The Ring
3. The Virtues
4. The Psyche
5. The Forms
6. The Ship
7. The Cave
8. The Regimes
9. The Just
10. The Spindle

Added: January 28th 2022
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Thumos on bandcamp
Hits: 1190
Language: english

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