Withered – Folie Circulaire (Prosthetic Records)
Friday, 15th March 2013
The “wall of sound” is a term often bandied about when discussing the rash of post-metal/hardcore/whatever bands that are currently inundating the underground. While excellent bands like Isis, Rosetta, and Cult of Luna have painstaking recreated the Neurosis shoe-gaze, huge wall ‘o sound template, it is Withered that have taken it to new extremes.
The follow-up to 2005’s well-received Momento Mori, Folie Circulaire is the band’s first album with Prosthetic, a move that will certainly push this Georgia-based quartet into new territories. Folie Circulaire is as advertised: hulking, massive, with an ample amount of sweltering melodies and post-metal thrusts that will shake yer foundation and then some.
Opener “An Embrace” cuts right to the chase, with a massive array of big, throbbing guitars making their way through a maze of deep, dingy sonic thrusts courtesy of band leader Mike Thompson and fellow guitarist Chris Freeman. The post-apocalyptic minefield that is “The Forsaken Truth” sees Withered temper the pace to a degree, allowing for those hollow, sparse atmospheres to seep through, just as things were getting too heavy.
Melody is tossed about briefly, especially during the early moments of the thunderous “Purification of Ignorance” and rumbling strands of “The Fated Breath.” Withered is very careful to use such tools, for the bulk of the album stays within the huge wall of sound template they’ve been able to so successfully adopt.
Tailor-made for listening with surround-sound capabilities (no, this isn’t an advertisement…), Folie Circulaire is proof of how throttling and majestic the distorted guitar can be. In the very capable hands of Withered, the possibilities for sonic destruction seem limitless and ultimately, a formality.
(This content was originally posted on Blistering.com)
