This Will Destroy You -- This Will Destroy You

5/10

For Christmas in 2011, my cousin Adrian, aka "The Rabbit," bought me a stack of CD's. He was unsure if I'd like them, outside of one, which he thought was a gimme. I enjoyed every album from the stack...but the gimme. Which is weird, considering Adrian and I have a very similar tastes in music. That not so gimme "gimme" was This Will Destroy You's 2008 self-titled album.
This Will Destroy fits the so-called instrumental post-rock genre to a T. Meaning if that mold was T-shaped, and you put the album in there, you would have to do no shoving to make space, and yet would have no space left over. The album's songs are long, drawn-out pieces, generally featuring minimalist, effect-laden, guitar-heavy builds, finally climaxing with distortion, crashing percussion, and of course, louder volumes, though this album's crescendos are quieter than most. The songs on This Will Destroy You either do that, or simply trickle along on ambience for a few minutes. That's about it. The album adds nothing new to the genre, and seems tailor-made for commercials that could use a certain type of sound in the background. Indeed, after the album's release, the commercials came calling.
I don't mean to cast aspersions upon this band. Though I find This Will Destroy You to be pleasantly boring, I can tell there's some passion underneath. And Adrian really likes it, so that's got to count for something.


2008 Magic Bullet
1. A Three-Legged Workhorse 9:12
2. Villa Del Refugio 7:06
3. Threads 5:41
4. Leather Wings 3:30
5. The Mighty Rio Grande 11:18
6. They Move on Tracks of Never-Ending Light 6:59
7. Burial on the Presidio Banks 7:44