Singer-songwriter, visual artist, former member of Nocturnes and present member of post-rock luminaries Red Sparowes, Emma Ruth Rundle already has an impressive CV. Her latest work, May Our Chambers Be Full, sees her collaborating with prolific sludge rockers Thou on an album awash with ambient soundscapes and latent threat. The results are remarkable, not least thanks to a seemingly instant chemistry between the musicians.
Rising from an ambient haze, Killing Floor harks back to the melodic darkness of Soundgarden via Mailman, as huge riffs collide with Emma’s vocals; Thou vocalist Bryan Funck’s scabrous rasp mixed low, to provide texture to the whole, without overwhelming the fragile balance at work. A vertiginous sonic experience, with gargantuan guitars set against a wall of near-impenetrable bass, it makes for a deeply engrossing start to the record. It’s followed by the tougher, leaner  Monolith, a sludgy beast that heads further down the alt-rock path, thanks to tautly intertwined vocal melodies and Tyler Coburn’s energetic rhythms. Out Of Existence proves to be a strange piece that juxtaposes towering riffs with moments of somnambulant beauty, reminiscent of an amped-up Pink Floyd. Such deft changes do much to emphasise the throbbing power of the band’s delivery, the quieter passages providing a greater opportunity to explore the musicianship at the heart of this pairing.
Without a preamble, Ancestral Recall is one of the albums most visceral tracks, Emma’s vocals serving to frame a truly monumental lead from Bryan, who delivers a performance so intense it’s easy to imagine chunks of the singer’s throat hitting the microphone during the fevered sessions. It contrasts beautifully with the elegant beauty of Magickal Cost, a track that foregrounds Emma’s hazy guitar work and smoky vocals; only to suddenly turn on the listener, as the band unleash a ferocious maelstrom that threatens to overwhelm everything in its path. Following along a similar path, Into Being offers the record’s most memorable melody, Emma’s voice coiling itself around a Melvins-esque groove. The record finishes with eight-minute epic The Valley a dense, and beautiful closer that sees the band engage in a sensitive exploration of the world around them. With tribal rhythms replacing the crushing percussive blasts found elsewhere, and gently bowed strings eking out a passage across the sparse sonic landscape, the listener finds themselves lost in a world full of wonder and majesty, that loses none of its grandeur, even as it erupts in one last fiery outpouring of volcanic rage.
May Our Chambers Be Full is a remarkable collaboration, not least because the chemistry between the artists gives the impression that they have always worked together. Over seven tracks, there is beauty and savagery, blinding light and the darkest shade. Wisely kept short, not a moment is wasted and it’s hard to believe that so much could be so elegantly packed into just thirty-seven minutes. Not so much a rock record as a seismic work of art, May Our Chambers Be Full is, quite simply, a masterpiece. 9/10
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