Great Destroyer, the

A new “aggressive” direction for Duluth, MN-based sadcore/ slowcore band Low. Over the last 10 years Low has developed a sound unlike many bands: slow, sparse, fragile m+f vocals. This is often full, medium tempoed, distorted. For how much of a shock this is, I’m surprised how much I like it. Some great moments on this disc; some bland moments as well, but more good than bad.
-Adrian
My picks: 2, 6, 9, 10, 12 All clean
1. rumbling drums, keyboard drone, a little guitar and lots of fuzz keyboard-bass. great m-f vocals.
2. “poppy.” medium tempo and a full sound but reminds me of the “old” low quite a bit. has a nice breakdown and build near the end of the song.
3. distorted guitar, lo-fi drums. a bit repetitive
4. slow, soft until the middle.. distorted guitar (left channel) and arpeggiated guitar (right channel). subtle drums until shimmering drums in the middle
5. slightly lowified standard indie rock.
6. slow, reverby guitar line, loud nice, soft part from the middle to the end
7. slow, mostly voice (those great m+f vocals!) with a slight backing. pretty. builds.
8. weird, distorted vocals. makes me feel like I’m going crazy, until the somewhat mundane chorus (clapping).
9. soft strumming (autoharp?). not quite old low-style but slow and sad and gorgeous. a sudden loud and distorted part at the end doesn’t ruin the song (but don’t expect to go to sleep to it either)
10. long (7:14) sounds really familiar. goes between rhythmic / strumming and echoey vocals. intense build at the end.
11. starts out soft, one guitar strumming. guitar/ feedback solo. nice resolution
12. acoustic guitar strumming and m vox.
13. starts all drums, then strummed guitar.