''Heathen'' is the fourth studio album by American metal band
Thou
The word ''thou'' is a second-person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in most contexts by the word ''you'', although it remains in use in parts of Northern England and in Scots (). ''Thou'' is the ...
. It was released on March 25, 2014 through Gilead Media.
Critical reception
The album generally received rave reviews from music critics.
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
critic Gregory Heaney praised the album, writing that it "rewards repeat listens with new surprises, giving anyone with the fortitude to wade through the muck and sludge even more glimpses at the warm,
shoegaze
Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...
center that lives at the heart of this doomy juggernaut."
Iann Robinson of
CraveOnline
Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male- ...
awarded the album with a perfect score, stating: "''Heathen'' leaves you breathless, stammering for a way to process everything you’ve just heard." Robinson also added that the band "are able to translate the darkest parts of the human soul into music, and for that we should all be grateful."
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
's Kim Kelly described the album as "a portrait of a band that is in complete harmony with itself, if not the world it inhabits."
Michael Nelson of
Stereogum
''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine.
''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...
regarded the record as "a dark, bombastic, hugely ambitious album of great sorrow, but perhaps even greater beauty,"
while
Spin magazine
''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012.
Histor ...
described it as "the culmination of all that perspiration, almost cinematic in the scope of the suffering and seething anger it portrays."
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quiet ...
' Robin Smith thought the record as "doom metal siren song – its beauty is incidental to a forever kind of pain."
Accolades
:
Track listing
Personnel
;Thou
* Bryan Funck – vocals
* Andy Gibbs – guitar
* Matthew Thudium – guitar
* Mitch Wells – bass guitar
* Josh Nee – drums
;Guest contributions
* Emily McWilliams – vocals
* Derek Zimmer – vocals
;Technical personnel
* James Whitten – mixing, recording, production
* Adam Tucker – mastering
* Mike Jones – layout
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2014 albums
Thou (American band) albums