Critic's evaluation
It was formed in 2020, right at the start of the pandemic. The brainchild of guitarist Vina, the project didn't take long to release its first full-length, arriving that same year in the form of the Odium EP. Shortly afterwards came Throematism, their debut album. Now, however, Throe presents a new chapter in its discography with O Enterro Das Marés, its new extended play.
There is a Celtic touch to its dawn melody of acid notes. Amid mystical torments coming from a mist that serves as a prelude to an enigmatic dawn, the terrain is unveiled in its post-chaos setting in an almost poetic way. Amidst the rubble, torn fabrics fluttering in the wind and the scent of dried blood scattered on the ground, sadness and disappointment take over the emotional state of the omnipresent being who observes the environment with a curious tenderness. Suddenly, an explosion breaks through the softness reminiscent of Wake, Linkin Park's prelude track, and brings intensity and drama whose sensation is tearing and stabbing. Bringing an alternative metal style to Staind, Hope Shines In The Autumn Light begins to move because, under the riff of a rough base guitar, a shimmering solo guitar with a melodic riff and a cry that mixes pain but also hope flies out. Then, from this context drawn by Vina, the horizon is filled with a touching, clear landscape of a stimulating and comforting blue. Its breeze doesn't just offer peace, but the re-energizing that makes it possible to keep going with your head held high. Evolving into melodramatic phrases that insert notions of emocore mixed with alternative rock, Hope Sinhes In The Autumn Light has a bridge that, curiously, is adorned by a dark, sinister and introspectively provocative air that echoes through the now completely inhospitable scenery. Gradually, the light bathes the land again as a velvety but embryonic strident sonar makes the remaining leaves of the trees detach themselves and gently waltz until they are carefully deposited on a green lawn bathed in a violet sky. Despite the harsh strumming of the guitar that follows, Hope Sinhes In The Autumn Light ends, with the return of the melodious lead guitar riff, with the same sense of emotion, hope, positivity and peace exuded at its first melodic-narrative peak.
As was the case with Hope Sinhes In The Autumn Light, the drums' sonar continues to be loaded with squeaks that, perhaps unreasonably, bring lo-fi inserts, now in a denser, darker, harsher and more strident environment, in a way that also communicates an embryonic noise rock. Thanks to the guitar, its distorted riff in low tones and its slow tempo, doom metal becomes part of this melodic recipe. Within a dark and enigmatic setting, a crackling sonar echoes through the inhospitable surroundings while Marco Nunes' bass, with its severe stridency, ends up also inserting stoner notions into the tangle of ingredients of this melting pot called Bleed Alike. Lancinating, sharp and cutting, the song maintains its harsh-strident linearity until it acquires extra doses of pressure thanks to the double bass sonar, which builds a kind of straight line until something dissonant and strident communicates the final end. It's like blood dripping down to the last drop through the cuts created by the sharp riffs and spread across the body.
The torpor of Hope Sinhes In The Autumn Light seems to resume its position during the new, mystical dawn. As melancholy as the tide on an autumn afternoon, the sharpness of the synthetic sonar brings a false sense of sweetness that puts the listener in a kind of bubble that muffles and softens all external imperfection. Then a continuous, electronically strident sound breaks through the psychedelia of the moment and makes the listener gradually recover what they think are signs of free consciousness. Even so, the entrance of the guitar helps to maintain the sense of intoxication with its melodically sharp and softened riff, which is able to bring freshness and a nostalgic-melancholy to the context of Renascente. At the end of this spectrum, the base guitar comes in with a slightly dramatic riff that encourages this kind of tearful and moving memory that is so intense and impregnated by the track. Then there's the synthetic sound of the high-pitched keys and the drums, which come as a surprise element with their aesthetic simplicity, but which are capable of giving pressure and harnessing the touching energy exuded by Renascente. Not only that, but the song, before beginning its final fall, enters a harmonic crescendo capable of making even the most insensitive listener's eyes water.
It's not just a look that works like the pronunciation of a thousand words. So does sound. And that's exactly what happens with O Enterro Das Marés: the sound speaks for itself. Sensitive, intense and dramatic, the material surprises in its range of textures, capable of inciting peace, adrenaline and also torpor in equal measure.
With its three tracks, which together exceed 28 minutes in length, the EP could lead the listener to classify it as a progressive work. In fact, given its length, there's no arguing, but the work is much more than just an exponent of progressive music.
Based on the proposal to offer a wide range of textures, complementary or not, dissonant or not, O Enterro Das Marés is a perfect example of material that delights in the aesthetics of post-rock. From it, narratives are presented in such a way as to capture the listener's attention with their non-verbal but largely sensory plots.
Between salt, sweet and sour, the EP takes the listener through chaos, darkness, but also the hopeful calm of redemption. They are environments that move through velvet and torpor, but also through the stabbing and the harsh, providing the dichotomies of peace and intensity in their dialog about rebirth from chaos.
And to support this narrative, Throe also entrusted Nunes with the task of mixing. Thus, being both creative and technical, the professional knew how to balance emotion and aesthetics in the sound engineering of O Enterro Das Marés. As a result, the EP managed to explore textures ranging from emocore, alternative rock, doom metal, lo-fi, stoner rock, noise rock and alternative metal. All under the umbrella of post-rock.
Rounding off the technical scope is the cover artwork. Signed by Rafael Nascimento, it offers a curious dystopian visual communication, in which white takes on the robes of black in the information of mourning. In the midst of the dazzling pallor, contours and textures show what appears to be a fishing net in a perfect allusion to the damage to marine fauna and, thus, may justify the title 'the burial of the tides'. Another point of interpretation is the possibility that the tide is a metaphor for time and the net, in turn, is responsible for trapping and isolating a period judged to be socially dark.
Released on 08/24/2023 via Abraxas Records, O Enterro Das Marés is like a proposal to fix yesterday's mistakes with the new dawn. It's chaos, rebellion, pain and sadness sharing the same space as torpor and peace. With the EP, Throe snatches away the agony of the search for peace and the resumption of a normality that began to be reacquired in the fall of 2021.
