“I’ve tried to come to terms with my mind.”
Despite being relative newcomers to the scene, Sweden’s thrown have already amassed a sizeable following. One of the many projects of the prolific Buster Odeholm (Vildjharta, Humanity’s Last Breath), they rode the nu-metalcore wave of the early 2020s to great heights, rising higher in popularity than most of their contemporaries. Celebrity endorsement from the likes of Demi Lovato definitely helped to bolster their reach. Three years since their debut single, the quartet are finally ready to present their debut album, EXCESSIVE GUILT.
Without a single song over two minutes on the album (and by extension, their discography), thrown’s approach has always been to make it quick and to the point. Combining Odeholm’s signature heavy mix with a straightforward heavy sound has clearly resonated with many, with these bite-sized packages of aggression being easy to take in. “on the verge” displays this well, swinging from groove to groove with ease. Vocalist Marcus Lundqvist belts out lyrics of despair with a desperate aggression. The track manages to switch up the rhythm a number of times despite its short runtime, from an unusually atmospheric chorus to beatdown breakdowns.
The opening half of the album, which includes most of the singles, wastes no time in getting straight into the aggression. The signature nu-metal bounce leads the groove of most of the tracks, heard especially on tracks like “backfire”. The album takes a foray into a more rap metal influenced style on “bitter friend”, alternating between scream-rapped verses and heavier riffs in a back and forth. Charging forward with this sonic ferocity and speed, the album flies by.
Perhaps, it flies by too quickly.
It is upon approaching the album’s halfway mark where one may realise that it’s packed with the album’s shortest tracks. It’s a rather puzzling decision to have most of the album’s longest tracks released as singles starting more than a year ago. What is left is a collection of short bursts of energy, with only enough to carry you to the next fleeting moment. Undoubtedly, each track in isolation can be fun in its own right, but they are given no time at all to progress further than the same rehashed ideas used before. During my initial listen of the album, I zoned out for a moment and I didn’t even realise that the track “ignored” had already ended. I can’t help but find that poetic in a way.
In the age of ever-diminishing attention spans, songs of this nature could perhaps be seen as a viable strategy, presenting these will-o’-wisps of heavy music to capture the mind of a metalcore fan lost to the brainrot. However, this hardly makes for an engaging album experience. It doesn’t help that the nu-metalcore subgenre has found itself massively oversaturated, and while thrown does have standout elements to their sound, the lack of any meaningful development of this makes this album feel redundant in the current landscape. Lyrical themes of self-loathing and bitterness are relatable, but the album doesn’t offer much more than that. Cathartic perhaps, but this combined with the other elements mentioned results in a tiring repetitiveness.
It’s really a shame because as demonstrated on “on the verge”, thrown are fully capable of creating an experience that is engaging and varied. Most of the album’s tracks end before they can begin, and I struggle to imagine how much of a song’s structure can be manipulated when they’re all barely over a minute long.
In its entirety, EXCESSIVE GUILT is truly a fleeting experience. I don’t doubt that the album will still strike a chord with many, but the spark will likely fizzle out in time. There were many possibilities that thrown could have explored with the format of a full-length, and it’s rather disappointing that even after such a long wait, they have chosen to stick to status quo. There is much unexplored potential with this band, and it’s the hope that they will push further beyond their established boundaries in the future.
4/10
EXCESSIVE GUILT releases on the 30th of August via Arising Empire. Pre-order links for the album can be found here.