The track comes from their upcoming album ‘Umbilical’, releasing on May 31st.
Photo credit: Liam Neighbors
American sludge metal band Thou have just released a brand new track, ‘Unbidden Guest.’ It’s the second track to emerge from the new LP, following ‘I Feel Nothing When You Cry’, which released last month.
Giving the low-down on the new cut, singer Bryan Funck said the track was about, “Physical deterioration by way of psychological disarray.” “[It’s about] retreading a well-worn path of self grievance. Othering mental illness and learned behaviour in order to crush them under the dominance of epistemic willpower.” He also posed the question, ‘The last time you cried, who’d you think was inside?” The track comes with an oddly humorous visualiser, wherein the band superimpose live videos of themselves onto stock footage. You can watch it below.
The song and its predecessor are both selections from the Louisianan 6-piece’s upcoming record, ‘Umbilical’, set for release on May 31st, and the band had yet another emphatic statement to deliver with its announcement.
“They’ve called us anarchists, criminals, foreign meddlers, lunatics, dispossessed, relativists, utilitarians, egoists, passion maximizers, ascetics, negators of everything.” “Clearly”, they say, “the “Thou” experiment is never going to appeal to audiences who demand that art rigorously enforce a coherent and righteous worldview.”
“This record is for the radicals, the crackpots, the exiles who have escaped the wasteland of capitulation. This record is for the militants and zealots refusing to surrender to comforts, to practicalities, to thirty pieces of silver. And this record is most especially for the weaklings and malingerers, burdened by capricious indulgence, hunched by the deep wounds of compromise, shuffling in limp approximation, desperately reaching back towards integrity and conviction.”
The band will follow the release of the album with a number of live dates, beginning immediately after on June 1st, with another USA date in July, before embarking on an Australian tour in August. Support on the tour will come from grindcore band Full Of Hell.
Thou’s new album ‘Umbilical’ releases via Sacred Bones on May 31st. Pre-Order / Pre-Save it here. See below for the new album’s artwork, track list, and a full list of live dates.
‘Umbilical’ Digital & CD Track Listing:
1 – Narcissist’s Prayer
2 – Emotional Terrorist
3 – Lonely Vigil
4 – House of Ideas
5 – I Feel Nothing When You Cry
6 – Unbidden Guest
7 – I Return as Chained and Bound to You
8 – The Promise
9 – Panic Stricken, I Flee
10 – Siege Perilous
Live Dates
June
- Jun 1: New Orleans, LA – Zeitgeist (w/ SLOWHOLE – all ages show)
July
- Jul 28: New Orleans, LA – The Broadside (w/ The Body + Dis Fig and Nail Club)
August
- 14th: The Zoo – Brisbane, AU *
- 15th: Mary’s Underground – Sydney, AU *
- 16th: The Baso – Canberra, AU *
- 17th: Stay Gold – Melbourne, AU *
- 18th: Crown & Anchor – Adelaide, AU *
- 23rd: Rolling Stone – Christchurch, NZ *
- 24th: Meow – Wellington, NZ *
- 25th: Galatos – Auckland, NZ *
September
- 13th-15th: Richmond, VA – Persistent Vision Fest
* w/ Full of Hell
