Swedish act thrown has been making a name for themselves with some viral tactics and a vicious live show, and Excessive Guilt marks their first full-length album. Fueled by a number of pre-release singles, there’s not a ton of completely new material but that’s not really a problem considering the streaming mechanism of today and the band’s prolific release of singles. Unfortunately, as a full-length Excessive Guilt doesn’t do much to keep the listener’s interest beyond the ‘whoa that was aggressive and heavy’ mentality.
At 20 minutes and 11 tracks, there’s nothing excessive about length. Given the tracklisting and the band’s visceral mentality, that’s a good thing. Tracks waver around the 1.5-2 minute mark and say what they need to say before getting stale. Mixing bits of hardcore, beatdown, nu-metal, and even hip hop into an aggressive outlet, there’s almost no relenting from their assault. For those seeking an occasionally groovy adrenaline rush, thrown seek to provide such an experience. Thunderous nu-metal riffs, snarling vocals, and heavy grooves permeate “on the verge,” which a tinge of hip hop and electronic influence give some extra credence to, while “vent” goes straight for the jugular with downtuned riffs that never cease. It can be an intense experience, and for that, thrown does a good job at their intentions.
The problem that surfaces, when listening to more than one song in a row, is how the songs are so short that they become outright blurs. Something that shouldn’t really happen in an album this short. At one minute in length, “ignored” feels like it was simply cut off and they moved to the next song. As you listen to multiple songs as a whole, it begins to really merge into one large downtuned beatdown. This is a particular problem with the shorter songs in the album’s second half in general.
Excessive Guilt will undoubtedly leave a mark with its intended audience but probably don’t do much to convince many others. It’s a fun way to burn 20 minutes if you want something that sounds pissed and angry, and there’s always a time and place for that. Just don’t expect something that’s going to fight for your attention over extended periods of time.