Aural Aggravation

For 14 years Throat have been the sonic equivalent of forcing a square peg into a round hole; often abrasive, causing utmost irritation at times and on a rare occasion a feverishly pleasant dose of brooding darkness in one’s otherwise dull existence.

The peg now fits. We Must Leave You sees Throat dropping pegs of all shape and size through the same hole. The last confines of musical genres are behind them, resulting in an album which can be regarded as the easiest listening Throat has ever presented or simultaneously their most difficult and puzzling work to date.

“’Tiny Golden Murder’ stands as the life and death of the party on We Must Leave You. Already proven to be a floor filler on a few live occasions, it’s easily the closest Throat has ever come to a rock anthem. On the other hand, the refrain “Terminate us all” can be a sharp pill to swallow for the average party people. For Throat, that’s where the real party begins. It’s a last call for alcohol and a last call for everything”, band announce.

Listen here:

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Thematically what we have here is a breakup album. Never ones for thinking small, Throat breaks up with the world. Enough is enough. Bring back lockdown. No need for petty social commentary on how the world is burning. Let it burn. Throat is already walking away and it remains to be seen where they end up next. If anywhere.

Breakups always require dramatic music, and We Must Leave You more than fits the purpose. Throat have already hinted at new directions and new sounds on their previous two albums, but here it all breaks loose. Rooted in the same heavy, dark rock sound as always, but a touch of gothic drama from the 80s has been injected to the band’s sonic palette which obviously means a few deeper shades of black. The noise and dissonance remain, but this time it all has been dipped in honey and black grease paint.

We Must Leave You was written over a few years’ time and finally recorded in 2023 at Tonehaven Recording Studiowith Tom Brooke and the band’s own Amplified Human Audio. Once again, Andrew Schneider mixed the album at Acre Audio and Carl Saff handled mastering duties at Saff Mastering. Photography by Dorota Brzezicka and design by Stefan Alt of Ant-Zen.

Bring back lockdown. Bring back isolation. Heaven Hanged sums up these sentiments that are some of the key elements on We Must Leave You. We’re breaking up with the world. It’s not us, it’s you. No, we can’t stay friends. Musically Heaven Hanged offers a glimpse of the album going from morose and goth-tinged sound to more hysterical dark rock ruckus. Our intention has never been to keep treading the same tracks, so the direction of progress evident on the last few releases has brought us to We Must Leave You.

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Throat photo by Aleks Talve