Broiling up an explosive sonic smorgasbord in a free-fire zone, Foetus outdoes himself on Thaw, an album so intense that it makes the previous platters seem like knuckle-cracking tune-ups. Although the aural assaults of Foetus could never be described as commercial, on 1988's Thaw, Jim Thirlwell reaches his most accessible. His arsenal here includes automatic weapons, clanging metallic percussion, a symphony orchestra and virulent lyrics about suitably violent subject matter spewed out in a voice so shredded it would give Freddy Krueger the willies. All the traditional harsh, machine-based noise is still present, but in slightly more conventional patterns than before. For dynamic tension, Foetus suddenly drops back amid the onslaught to whisper a verse or two over acoustic piano and string bass (in one case, sitar and tabla). Opening track "Don't Hide It Provide It" rides on a mutant disco groove that many of Thirlwell's contemporaries would sell their souls to come up with, but it's something that he manages to do several times on the album. Not all of Thaw is dance worthy, and some of it is almost unlistenable -- "Asbestos" is three minutes of screeching violins -- but songs like "Barbedwire Tumbleweed" demonstrate just how far ahead of the pack Thirlwell is. Oppressive in the most rewarding fashion imaginable, Thaw — which concludes with the charming “A Prayer for My Death” — is the fantasy score to an unimaginable film no one should ever have to see. When he is on this kind of form, he's one of the best.
Ripped from the 2007 reissue (although not remastered) to mind-fracking MP3 @ 320kbps
Foetus Interruptus; Thaw
1. Don’t Hide It, Provide It
2. Asbestos
3. Fin
4. English Faggot
5. Hauss-On-Fah
6. Fratricide Pastorale
7. The Dipsomaniac
8. Barbedwire Tumbleweed
9. !Chingada!
10. A Prayer For My Death
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