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Released on May 15, 2015 via Consouling Sounds
I first became familiar with one-man ambient doom/drone project thisquietarmy through collaborations with Year Of No Light and Aidan Baker. Turns out Canadian Eric Quach has more than 30 releases under his belt so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Anthems For Catharsis seems to be an excellent place to start. Aside from having a title that perfectly captures the essence of the music, it’s a flat-out excellent record. The relationship with Aidan Baker makes a lot of sense since there’s more than a passing resemblance to Baker’s own work, especially his band Nadja. But where Nadja records are often monochromatic affairs, Anthems For Catharsis is dynamic and shape shifting. Sure there’s the Nadja-like skeletal ambience, but there are also elements of bombastic rock, mechanized black metal, gurgling electronica, and gauzy post-rock all slathered with a grey pall of desperation.
This is an incredibly dark record that engulfs and envelops, but there’s also beauty and comfort under the brutality and suffocation. Catharsis indeed. Highly recommended.
