This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket (2011)

In 2006, Texas post-rock quartet This Will Destroy You released their first EP entitled Young Mountain. After releasing their self-titled debut album in 2008, the band focused more on smaller releases for two tears, before beginning work on what would be their next full-length. In 2009, they released a split record with Lymbyc Systym and in 2010, they released an EP entitled Moving On The Edges Of Things. On May 10, 2011, the quartet will release their second official full-length entitled Tunnel Blanket. With Tunnel Blanket, This Will Destroy You are trying to do something different than the typical post-rock formula and are going the route of soundscapes and atmospheres. The album has few epic crescendos, little reverb, and is very different than anything released by the quartet. I was lucky enough to hear the album almost a month before its official release date, and I am thrilled with what I hear.

For one thing, Tunnel Blanket is not the type of album that needs individual song reviews, because each track is as good as the next. The only two tracks on the album that are fairly similar to the quartet's previous work are 'Communal Blood' and 'Black Dunes', but these tracks are still very different, and a whole lot darker. Tracks such as 'Glass Realms' and 'Hand Powdered' go the more ambient direction. Layers of droned out guitars grace the tracks, giving them a similar feel to film scores or drawn-out soundscapes.

Tunnel Blanket will definitely make the listener drift off due to repetition, but the album is phenomenally layered and the guitars produce some of the greatest drone sounds that I ever heard in this genre of music. With more than a month until its official release, Tunnel Blanket is capable of being one of This Will Destroy You's best releases. Although the feel is entirely different than previous releases, This Will Destroy You knew which route to go and succeeded. The post-rock genre is too bombarded with similar sounding artists and needs a solution to this problem, and I think Tunnel Blanket is it. On May, 10, 2011, you will get to experience it yourself but for now check out the track 'Black Dunes':