The Estonian band Thunraz, the solo project of Madis Jalakas, has been in a creative surge from its inception, releasing a pair of EPs and a pair of albums since 2018. If anything the surge has strengthened, because Thunraz is following its latest album Revelation (released about five months ago) with yet another album coming out before this current month ends.
The new album is entitled Borderline, and it includes nine songs, one of which — “You and Me” — we’re premiering today along with a head-spinning red-shifted video.
This makes the fifth time we’ve written about the music of Thunraz since discovering the project’s debut album Hinterland in 2021, and for good reason, because the music is so thoroughly unpredictable and so reliably capable of throwing listeners way outside their comfort zones. It seems spawned by a view of humanity as an abomination that likely has no future and doesn’t deserve one, a view that has taken shape in music that’s deranged, desolate, devastating — and yet quite capable of triggering your reptile brain.
“You and Me” brings its own twists and turns, as just about everything from Thunraz does. The drumming booms and bounds, the riffing burns and blares, and the guttural vocals are malignant. But the guitars also dissonantly squeal, a quavering voice sings, and another vocal variation gloomily intones as the chords lurch.
With tempos and percussive patterns changing without warning, the riffing and vocals continue changing as well. You’ll encounter muscle-moving grooves, scalding screams, and screeching arpeggios that radiate dementia. It begins to seem like an audio potion of psychosis and psychedelics, unnervingly exultant but also dangerous, and the head-nodding, leg-bouncing beats remain viscerally irresistible.
Thunraz will release Borderline on CD and digital formats on November 28th — and we’ll have more to say about it then.
PRE-ORDER:
https://thunraz.bandcamp.com/album/borderline
FOLLOW THUNRAZ:
https://www.facebook.com/thunrazmetal