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THIS WILL DESTROY YOU

Post Rock/Math rock • United States


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This Will Destroy You biography
Founded in Los Angeles, USA in 2005

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU is a post rock band from Texas formed in 2005 by Chris King (guitar), Jeremy Galindo (guitar), Raymond Brown (bass, keyboard) and Andrew Miller (drums). In June 2006 the band released their first EP entitled "Young Mountain" which was originally meant to be their demo tape. The EP was well received by critics and fans. In February 2007 the band began recording their first full length and in late January 2008 the band released their eponymous self titled debut. The band is currently signed to Magic Bullet Records.

Recommended for fans of Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Ros and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

- Sebastian Maldonado (burritounit) -

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THIS WILL DESTROY YOU discography


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THIS WILL DESTROY YOU top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.83 | 39 ratings
This Will Destroy You
2008
3.50 | 26 ratings
Tunnel Blanket
2011
4.04 | 12 ratings
Another Language
2014
4.50 | 2 ratings
New Others Part One
2018
4.00 | 2 ratings
New Others Part Two
2018
3.88 | 5 ratings
Vespertine
2020

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

5.00 | 4 ratings
Live In Reykjavik, Iceland
2013

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

4.13 | 26 ratings
Young Mountain
2006
3.32 | 9 ratings
This Will Destroy You & Lymbyc Systym: Field Studies
2008
1.42 | 5 ratings
Moving On the Edges of Things
2010
0.00 | 0 ratings
Black Dunes
2011
0.00 | 0 ratings
Their Celebrations
2013
0.00 | 0 ratings
The Puritan
2017
3.00 | 1 ratings
Go Away Closer
2018
0.00 | 0 ratings
Escape Angle
2018
0.00 | 0 ratings
Variations & Rarities: 2004-2019 Vol. 1
2020

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Young Mountain by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, 2006
4.13 | 26 ratings

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Young Mountain
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by Boi_da_boi_124

4 stars Review #167!

While this EP isn't post-rock's most brilliant or experimental or innovative, it is beautiful and should not be underestimated. This is Young Mountain, California-based This Will Destroy You's debut EP(even though it clocks in at 36 minutes), and it is great. It is aptly titled, since the band was still maturing as they made this, but all the same, it is a peak in their discography. Characterized by soft, yet complex melodies centered around guitars and drums, this proves a fitting and enjoyable album for almost all lovers of post-rock. It soars through genres, from Prog Electronic, to Math Rock, to Noise. It is powerful, enjoyable, and worth the listen. Prog on.

 Another Language by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Studio Album, 2014
4.04 | 12 ratings

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Another Language
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by Dapper~Blueberries
Prog Reviewer

4 stars This Will Destroy You is one of those bands that I feel you either love or hate. To a blind ear they may just seem like your stereotypical post rock group trying to be like Explosions In The Sky or Mogwai, but when looked at closely they are actually quite unique. Sure, they may not reinvent the wheel, and they may not be as experimental or groundbreaking as Swans or 65daysofstatic, but This Will Destroy You is a band that can ultimately put out some incredible tunes when they get the ball rolling. I think they have some excellent songs on their first and second albums of Young Mountain and their self titled, but I think Another Language, their fourth album, is kind of an underdog in their catalog of great releases.

Another Language was kind of a return to form for the band after their more ambient Tunnel Blanket, but unlike their self titled and Young Mountain they decided to combine their ambient workings of Tunnel Blanket with their energetic post rock, and I think this direction adds a bit of charm to the band's output on here. Many of these songs are quiet, and very patient with what they are trying to achieve, like most post rock stuff, but I find This Will Destroy You has a bit more energy in these quieter moments, often going a bit more melodic, which I like, as well as going a tad more harder and louder on the crescendos, almost to the point where they dip their feet in the murky post metal waters.

I think what makes this album very fun to listen to is how the band bends and shapes their music with each song. While on first listens each song may feel like a carbon copy from one another, on a closer look I found these tracks to truly be each of their own craft. Sure, each song may be wearing a tuxedo to the party, but they all bought different brands and sizes of those tuxedos. Some songs are more ambient and some are more bombastic; some songs are more somber and some are more aggressive. It creates this balance of high beauty and high energy, that a song on here can be good for any occasion and vibe. That is what I find most enjoyable about This Will Destroy You in general, they can shift between these beautiful and haunting melodies and atmospheres, too these really eventful pieces of miraculous energy on a dime that it makes them feel like a roller coaster in post rock form.

I will say however that, while I may like the more ambient pieces here, they are definitely the weakest parts of the album for me. The Puritan, and God's Teeth are particular here since I feel like these tracks were made for the sake of adding more tracks than necessary. God's Teeth is probably the worst here as I feel like the track before it, Memory Loss, should've been the closer as it has a more finale feel to it, and it has a good feel at that. God's Teeth just doesn't quite feel like a suitable, or in fact, necessary closer for this album.

I will also say that I feel the album to be a bit top heavy, since the first four tracks are some of the best the band has created in my mind, but tracks afterwards, besides Memory Loss, I feel aren't as good. It ain't the end of the world, but I just wish the track listings here were a bit better.

Overall I think this is a good and underrated album from the band. It may not be as stellar as Young Mountain, or really really excellent like their self-titled, but I do think it certainly has a place up on the This Will Destroy You throne.

 Vespertine by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Studio Album, 2020
3.88 | 5 ratings

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Vespertine
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by kev rowland
Special Collaborator Honorary Reviewer

4 stars Over the many years of their existence This Will Destroy You founder members Jeremy Adam Galindo and Christopher Royal King have been known for their work in films such as 'Moneyball', 'World War Z', and 'Foxcatcher', but here they have turned their meme to something quite different, namely musical score the band composed for Chef Jordan Kahn's 2-Michelin Star restaurant 'Vespertine'. The concept is to provide the soundtrack to a dining experience, and is set in such a way that it starts with the arrival at the building, coming inside, meeting the chef in the kitchen etc. They premiered this album with the release of the song 'Kitchen' all the way back in 2017, but the album itself only came out a few months ago.

I was somewhat intrigued to uncover what was behind the concept of putting music to a meal, so checked out the restaurant where it all made sense as there is a mission statement which says 'Vespertine is the vision of Chef Jordan Kahn. The project was formed through a collaboration with architect Eric Owen Moss, and a group of renowned artists to re-imagine and explore the experience of dining. The convergence of food, art, architecture, music, and sculpture is woven throughout to create an immersive, multi-sensory event.' I am intrigued, so much so that if I ever find myself in Culver City in California, I am going to have to seek this out, as this album certainly fits that remit. It is dreamy, reflective, with lots of keyboards and plenty of muted extended guitar chords which have been treated with effects, and it surrounds the listener and takes them to a new place altogether. Playing this, I felt like I was in a very calm place, sat at the sea bottom, allowing myself to commune with what was all around me. The pressure and sound of the water combined with my own breathing being all I could hear, my sense both shutting down and opening up as I experienced something quite different indeed. At times it is almost Floydian, others Radiohead, and yet others Jean Michel Jarre, but always reflective and taking the listener into new directions. Definitely one which needs to be played on headphones and given proper attention to.

 This Will Destroy You & Lymbyc Systym: Field Studies by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, 2008
3.32 | 9 ratings

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This Will Destroy You & Lymbyc Systym: Field Studies
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by TCat
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

3 stars This split EP features two tracks by the excellent post rock band "This Will Destroy You" and three from another Texan post rock band, not quite as well-known, called "Lymbyc Systym". I have been a fan of most of TWDY's style of post rock as they have always used dynamics quite well and been smart on their use of melody, noise and ambience. This particular collection, released in 2008, is a bit sketchy, but not a write off either. The EP starts with the one epic track which clocks in at over 11 minutes. This and the 2nd track are the TWDY tracks. "Brutalism & The Worship of the Machine" starts off surprisingly heavy and loud, but it does eventually calm down some and then continues with a decent variation of dynamic changes through its long run time. The music has a sort of "garage" imperfectness to it, which is okay, especially for the bleak sense that it conveys. The 2nd track "Freedom Blade" is much shorter and also a bit less harsh, but it is still your great, average sound. Neither one of these tracks stand out like the songs on the band's full albums, but they are also nice to listen to nevertheless.

The last three tracks are from Lymbyc Systym and they are all around the 4 minute mark. This band's style is a bit simpler sounding with a more extensive use of electronics, but still enough guitar to keep a slightly heavy edge. These tracks fit well with TWDY's tracks, but again, there is nothing that stands out too much here. Yes, they are good enough to listen to, but nothing to get excited about either. This is one of those EPs that, if you see it, by all means pick it up, but, unless you are a die-hard fan or completionist, there is no reason to search it out. We'll call it an average 3-star EP.

 Young Mountain by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, 2006
4.13 | 26 ratings

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Young Mountain
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by Kempokid
Collaborator Prog Metal Team

4 stars Post rock is a genre often accused of being stagnant, never moving forward, simply repeating the same thing over and over to no end. While I do find there to be a formula in the genre, starting off slowly and quietly and building up to explosive climaxes, I feel like this is a very simplistic way of looking at the genre as a whole, as many bands have their own nuances and takes on it. This Will Destroy You, while being quite Post Rock by numbers in its songwriting, follows the general compositional style of bands such as Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. The difference this artist has compared to those is that the band has a certain emotional warmth to it, compared to the sparse, minimalistic nature of Mogwai or the more uplifting, all encompassing emotion brought forth by EITS. This is also quite a bit more eventful than a lot of post rock I've heard, having long stretches of wall of sound and climactic moments, making it also a somewhat more accessible album than their counterparts.

Quiet sets up what the album is going to sound like quite quickly, begiining with some isolated, yet beautiful keyboard chords, then backed up by a nice drumbeat and guitars that fade in and out. The main focus of the song is this constant build up that never lets up, as these quiet, pleasant melodies are replaced with increasingly loud and distorted guitars, until the final section becomes more noise than song, with a layer of distrotion over everything, becoming absolutely massive sounding by the end. The World is Our ___ is a more varied song, with multiple peaks throughout, each valley to follow providing something different, my personal favourite being where the song briefly takes a more electronic route. As before, the song ends in a massive climax involving extensive amounts of distortion. The album definitely ends up being slightly weaker past these first two poewrful tracks, but nothing here is what I'd consider bad either. Each of them are slightly different in the bigger picture, but I'm given fairly similar impression from all of them, that imporession fortunately being a very positive one, as despite the relative quality of these being lower, each song still carries immense power. This is all within the confines of a much simpler sound, focusing much less on the ambience and imagery of many post rock giants, instead crafting excellent melodies brimming with a sense of personal optimism shrouded in a veil of melancholy, creating conflicting emotions in such a beautiful way, causing the listener to feel wistful, yet uplifted.

While this album isn't anything groundbreaking, I do find it to be an album that is quite accessible, carrying more of the indie rock sound in the form of a higher focus on melody, while still being strongly rooted in its main genre. This is definitely a work of beauty, and while parts of it may feel quite samey, I personally believe that it is still a very strong record for what it manages to achieve. This would be an excellent starting point for those looking to jump into post rock, as the album is short and much more direct than a lot of other bands in the genre.

Best tracks: Quiet, The World Is Our ___, Happiness: We're All In It Together

Weakest tracks: none

Verdict: I've already said all I can on this album without becoming redundant, this is absolutely gorgeous and definitely a great starting point for those looking to get into post rock, being far more accessibly written than a lot of other bands of the genre.

 This Will Destroy You by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Studio Album, 2008
3.83 | 39 ratings

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This Will Destroy You
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by TCat
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

4 stars Just like their EP "Young Mountain", which was their first studio recording, "This Will Destroy You" gets it right again with their debut full length album. This is post-rock that follows the basic formula of slow moving, beautiful instrumentals that typically build to intense and slow crescendos over the length of each track. What makes TWDY distinctive is that their music is based off of lovely themes and the band builds on these usually simple themes to create emotional and sometimes noisy blasts of energy by the time the individual track is finished. If you want a good idea of what they typical post-rock track should sound like, then this is the album you need to listen to.

Many post-rock bands have tried this basic formula, but most of them haven't made it work as well as what this band has. While it is true that several of the best bands have expanded the boundaries of post-rock away from this formula, this album stays loyal to the sound, but their melodies and themes can totally immerse you into each beautiful track, while others bands seem to lack the ability to do this or don't have the ability to keep your interest especially on the longer tracks. I never seem to have this problem with TWDY.

I find this album totally immersive as the simple themes draw you in and make your heart pound as they build in intensity. Even using this music as background music can have a good effect on you in a subliminal way, but the best way to listen is to be in a melancholy mood first of all and then just let yourself be taken away by the music as it coasts along and picks up the momentum to make it feel like you are soaring above everything. I have considered this band one of the best post-rock bands out there, and after discovering them on this site several years ago, I still feel the same way about them. Unfortunately, there is nothing groundbreaking about their music and the albums usually end up with 4 stars, but they have taken a sound and perfected it and that is why I love their sound.

 Tunnel Blanket by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Studio Album, 2011
3.50 | 26 ratings

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Tunnel Blanket
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by TCat
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

3 stars 'This Will Destroy You' (TWDY) is a progressive rock band that plays heavy guitar instrumental post rock. 'Tunnel Blanket' is their 3rd full length album. They got started in the business by releasing what was supposed to be a demo tape, and it ended up getting such great response, that it actually became their first album 'Young Mountain', which is an excellent album.

'Tunnel Blanket' is a much darker album that has an overall theme of death. It is more centered around ambience and drone- like pieces. This album is the first to feature keyboardist Donovan Jones and drummer Alex Bhore.

It starts out with the longest track 'Little Smoke' which has a run time of over 12 minutes. The first 3 minutes are quite soft and quiet, exploring ambient textures, but it suddenly erupts into a very loud, doom metal style wall of sound with a very slow dirge-like beat. This extremely loud section continues until around the 10 minute mark where it finally goes to an atmospheric ending.

'Glass Realms' begins with a soft drone with some static noise. It continues on with a slowly changing chord pattern under- layed with an organ drone. This one is more of a shoegaze style with very little change except for a gradual change in intensity at around the 4:30 mark which crescendos slowly to the end.

'Communal Blood' was released as the first single of the album. This 8 minute track starts off ambient with a subdued drone based on two slowly changed chords and a quiet thumping sound creating tension. At 3 minutes, there is a sudden increase in sound and a crashing cymbal as a slow moving melody is established by the guitars. The music continues to grow as it continues. At 6:30, percussion stops and the music continues to float on until percussion starts again later.

'Reprise' was released as the b-side to the single, and is another 8 minute piece. This one features some nice textures in the beginning with a layered drone and subdued keyboard chord changes. The feeling is much more peaceful and at 3 minutes you start to hear some strings come in quietly and one of the drone layers gets processed into a start/stop pattern while other layers continue on around it. The quietness of this track makes you listen closer and as you do, you notice a lot of sounds and textures going on among the layers. Very nice.

'Killed the Lord, Left for the New World' starts with a pulsating drone and a guitar quickly starts a slow melody on the top of it. After 1 minute, a percussion pattern starts that is almost a mid-tempo tribal best. At 2 minutes, this beat stops and the music continues to float around quietly. Deep in the mix, you can hear indiscernible voices chanting and after awhile, the percussion starts again. Soon the music actually get a nice lushness to it, which is a welcome reprieve to the darkness of the previous track. Music increases and a more symphonic drone which sound almost like a mellotron is created by the keys.

'Osario' is a relatively short track that quickly builds to high pitched drones and a subdued percussive sound all cemented together with a keyboard drone. This is followed by 'Black Dunes' with a return to an ambient style. The music sounds like it is coming from far away as things stay soft until a sudden increase in noise at 3:30. Again you get the wall of noise creating a doom metal feel with a slow beat.

'Powdered Hand' is a deep drone with a soft keyboard melody played over the top and some vocal field recordings thrown in.

The mixture of ambience and dark drones with sudden outbursts of sound is nice, and a few of the tracks are great, but, overall it does start to sound the same. The music does work well if used for background music and some tracks can almost put you into a meditative state, but since about half of the tracks have sudden outbursts, you never know when that state will be interrupted. It's a good album, but really there isn't anything that improves on the excellent first album, in fact, it might be a lot harder for many people to listen to it, and there are some sections that really require close listening to get the full effect. This style has been done better by other artists, but, again, it's not like the music is terrible, it just doesn't vary much from the usual formulas.

 Another Language by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Studio Album, 2014
4.04 | 12 ratings

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Another Language
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by TCat
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

4 stars There are several post rock bands out there that use a basic formula and that is starting off with a slow and soft section that builds and crescendos to a climax and ending with a loud and usually chaotic ending. This formula can start to get old after a while unless the band starts adding some ingenuity to the formula, or retaining the post rock sound without even using that formula. The best post rock bands do this, like Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Mono, Godspeed You! Black Emperor (and all of it's spin offs), and others. This Will Destroy You is another band that should be considered in this group of post rock band elites.

They do use this basic formula for the most part, but there are plenty of variations on it to keep things interesting. They are also not afraid to veer away from it and also experiment with the formula. Their original debut EP "Young Mountain" really does well to show this inventiveness and establish this band as one of the best, but for some reason, they have been ignored by a lot of people who love this type of music. The band also gets compared to "Explosions in the Sky" which is a good comparison, but they don't really care for this comparison and say that their next album will prove that they are much different. Of course, there are some similarities since they are in the same genre, but I find that This Will Destroy You is a lot more adventuresome and experimental with their sound.

"Another Language" is currently their most recent album, though there are talks to do more, which is good. It follows in the same vein as "Young Mountain", except there is more of a metallic sound to this album. Reverb is used a lot heavier on this album, which makes for some beautiful and atmospheric passages throughout the music. Dynamics are well utilized here too, which was also the case with "Young Mountain". With the use of reverb here though, the louder passages are very chaotic and heavy sounding, and at times, the effects can almost make you think you can hear some vocalizations deep in the mix, but that is not the case.

There are other effects done with the strings that give the music some very interesting atmosphere. This is really apparent on the softer track "God's Teeth". This one does not have any crescendo, but stays pretty soft throughout, and the track becomes more of a shoegaze style, but with a lot more interesting aspects added in. Shoegaze to me, can sometimes get quite un-emotional and boring, but this track does not become that. The band considers this album to be more of a "doom- gaze" style, taking aspects from doom metal and shoegaze music. Personally, I still find the first half of this album very post rock sounding, as was the case in the past, just with more reverb and loudness. The second half is more quiet, sometimes almost ambient and slightly drone like, but remaining interesting throughout. The reverb effect that is used extensively here, makes the music darker and thicker, almost orchestral and cinematic in feel with a lot of distortion in the loud passages, but I don't hear the doom metal aspect so much.

The album is completely instrumental as usual. The music does become more interesting and varied as the album goes on. I was hoping for this because too much of the same style or formula tends to get stale quickly. Although, I don't find the band quite as inventive as some of the post rock bands I mentioned earlier, they are still willing to try new things and utilize effects that make them and their songs unique. I continue to consider this a band worth checking out, especially if you are a fan of post rock. They just don't tend to get noticed as much as their peers, and they should be recognized for their unique sound.

 Another Language by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Studio Album, 2014
4.04 | 12 ratings

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Another Language
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by admireArt
Prog Reviewer

4 stars In these muddy, impending doom, drone-like, shoegaze, noisy, white noisy, trashy and snary, old radio like environments which could simply turn out to sound anonymous due to the fact that all these "musical elements" are a constant in most Post Rock/Mathers bands, you really have to watch out for "unique" proposals to distinguish one from the other.

Well, texan band "This Will Destroy You" brings some new exciting and attractive cards to this Prog sub genre's table in this, 2014, "Another Language". Let me start with its music composition which travels from chaos to peace with an astounding, yet raw, clarity. Its quirky, perfectly built melody lines outstand even among the most explosive abstract sections, offering simultaneous and opposite musical perspectives, taken to highly heavy bombastic altitudes and crash landing peacefully and beautifully by its good and attractive songwriting.

As such everything sounds perfect, but at the end of the day, the inherent musical elements of this style will hardly be distinguishable among the upcoming and ongoing Post Rock/Math Rock bands and crowds, if not for its brilliant songwriting, song selection and disposition which shines all along this dirty and washed out road.

****4 PA stars.

 Moving On the Edges of Things by THIS WILL DESTROY YOU album cover Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, 2010
1.42 | 5 ratings

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Moving On the Edges of Things
This Will Destroy You Post Rock/Math rock

Review by memowakeman
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

1 stars This is a very nice post rock band from Texas whose music I've been following for the last couple of years, due to the great atmospheres they create mainly with guitars. In 2010, they released a single entitled Moving on the Edge of Things in which we can listen to a couple of tracks that don't really give us a hint of what This Will Destroy You music is about. Here, they put experimental music, of course with some post rock tones but with an industrial and drone tendency. So be careful, because you might be surprised here, and maybe not in a positive way.

The first track is "Woven Tears", which starts with 30 seconds of an atmospheric, yet industrial sound that later is complemented by drums. The music continues in the same way, it sounds raw in moments, with a constant noisy- industrial feel that prevails until the very end. Though it is not bad at all, I think this track is a bit weak for post-rock purposes. The second song is "Ritual" which follows the same direction as the first one, though here I think the drone tendency is much more evident. This track lasts 11 minutes, so if you like drone music, you will like this, otherwise, I'm afraid you will want to skip it or finish it soon.

An experimental side of This Will Destroy You, not my favorite definitely. Enjoy it!

Thanks to burritounit for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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