Labels: Kill Normal
Review by: Alex Deller
They And The Children have, as far as I’m concerned, something of a potted history, their demo and debut 7″ showing no end of promise while subsequent releases (notably their “Thoughts On Becoming A Ghost” LP) really rather missed the mark. This second full-length swings the balance nicely back in their favour, dispensing with a great deal of the ambient chuffing around that every other fucker is currently peddling and condensing it all down into tightly-wadded bursts of metal-tinged rage and violence. Heavy, crunching riffs dominate proceedings, occasionally spiralling off into airier climes and plonking TATC’s musical backbone somewhere between From Ashes Rise and Young Widows as Brian Frenette scrapes the back of his throat over it all with a never-ending stream of bulge-eyed invective. Only “Invisible” with its end-of-days-Fugazi vibe and rumbling ten-minute closer “Gift” tread the “epic’ route, drawing themselves out in clear and effective contrast to the compact brevity of the album’s other six tracks and making for welcome diversions amidst the full-scale annihilation.