• Best of 2021
  • Monthly Missive
  • Columns
    • A Gift to Artwork
    • Cool People Column
    • Death’s Door
    • Doomsday
    • Editors’ Picks
    • Genre Genesis
    • Grind My Gears
    • Into the Pit
    • Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Post Rock Post
    • Rotten to the Core
    • Unmetal Monthly
  • Genres
    • Metal
      • Black Metal
      • Death Metal
      • Doom Metal
      • Grindcore
      • Metalcore
      • Post-Metal
      • Progressive Metal
      • Stoner Metal
      • Sludge Metal
      • Thrash Metal
      • Trad Metal
    • Rock
      • Art Rock
      • Hardcore
      • Indie Rock
      • Math Rock
      • Post-Rock
      • Progressive Rock
      • Psych Rock
      • Punk
      • Shoegaze
      • Stoner Rock
      • Synthwave
    • Classical
    • Electronic
    • Folk
    • Hip-Hop
    • Jazz
    • Pop
    • R&B
  • Reviews
  • Listen To This!
  • Podcast
  • Store
  • Contact
Search
Heavy Blog Is Heavy logo
  • Best of 2021
    Featured
    • Heavy Blog's Superlative List for 2021

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 17, 2022
      Best of 2021, Lists!
    Recent
    • Yearly Missive // 2021

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 17, 2022
    • Finding Meaning In Meaninglessness: A 2021 Survivor’s Guide

      Nick Cusworth
      January 17, 2022
    • Heavy Blog’s Top 50 Albums of 2021

      Heavy Blog
      January 17, 2022
    • A World In Which Music Exists – 2021 In Review

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 17, 2022
    • Unmetal Monthly // 2021 In Review

      Calder Dougherty
      January 17, 2022
    • Heavy Blog Guest List // Simeon Bartholomew

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 17, 2022
  • Monthly Missive
    Random
    • Yearly Missive // 2020

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 25, 2021
      Best of 2020, Monthly Missive
    Recent
    • Monthly Missive // June 2022

      Eden Kupermintz
      June 13, 2022
    • Monthly Missive // May 2022

      Heavy Blog
      May 5, 2022
    • Monthly Missive // April 2022

      Heavy Blog
      April 7, 2022
    • Monthly Missive // March 2022

      Heavy Blog
      March 3, 2022
    • Yearly Missive // 2021

      Eden Kupermintz
      January 17, 2022
    • Monthly Missive // December 2021

      Eden Kupermintz
      December 7, 2021
  • Columns

    Recent

    • Doomsday // June 2022

      Pete Williams
      June 13, 2022
      Doomsday
    • Post Rock Post // June 2022

      Eden Kupermintz
      June 13, 2022
      Post Rock Post
    • Flash of the Blade // June 2022

      Eden Kupermintz
      June 13, 2022
      Flash of the Blade
    • Kvlt Kolvmn // June 2022

      Jonathan Adams
      June 13, 2022
      Columns, Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Rotten to the Core // June 2022

      Calder Dougherty
      June 13, 2022
      Rotten to the Core
    • Death's Door // June 2022

      Jonathan Adams
      June 13, 2022
      Columns, Death's Door
    • A Gift to Artwork
    • Cool People Column
    • Death’s Door
    • Doomsday
    • Editors’ Picks
    • Genre Genesis
    • Grind My Gears
    • Into the Pit
    • Kvlt Kolvmn
    • Post Rock Post
    • Rotten to the Core
    • Unmetal Monthly
  • Genres
    • Metal
      • Black Metal
      • Death Metal
      • Doom Metal
      • Grindcore
      • Metalcore
      • Post-Metal
      • Progressive Metal
      • Stoner Metal
      • Sludge Metal
      • Thrash Metal
      • Trad Metal
    • Rock
      • Art Rock
      • Hardcore
      • Indie Rock
      • Math Rock
      • Post-Rock
      • Progressive Rock
      • Psych Rock
      • Punk
      • Shoegaze
      • Stoner Rock
      • Synthwave
    • Classical
    • Electronic
    • Folk
    • Hip-Hop
    • Jazz
    • Pop
    • R&B
  • Reviews
    Random
    • article placeholder

      Marduk - Frontschwein

      Heavy Blog
      February 25, 2015
      Reviews
    Recent
    • Coheed & Cambria – Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind

      Jimmy Rowe
      June 13, 2022
    • Artificial Brain – Artificial Brain

      Ahmed Hasan
      June 3, 2022
    • Astronoid – Radiant Bloom

      Jimmy Rowe
      May 27, 2022
    • Moon Tooth – Phototroph

      Eden Kupermintz
      May 5, 2022
    • Path of Might – Deep Chrome

      Eden Kupermintz
      May 5, 2022
    • Atoll – Prepuce

      Bridget Hughes
      May 5, 2022
  • Listen To This!
    Featured
    • Hey! Listen to Let Us Prey!

      Joshua Bulleid
      July 28, 2020
      Listen To This!
    Recent
    • What We’re Really Listening To – 7/1/22

      Scott Murphy
      July 1, 2022
    • Release Day Roundup – 7/1/22

      Scott Murphy
      July 1, 2022
    • Release Day Roundup – 6/24/22

      Scott Murphy
      June 24, 2022
    • Hungarian Post-Rock Trio Torzs Return For Another Visual and Aural Feast With “Atfordul”

      David Zeidler
      June 22, 2022
    • What We’re Really Listening To – 6/17/22

      Scott Murphy
      June 17, 2022
    • Release Day Roundup – 6/17/22

      Scott Murphy
      June 17, 2022
  • Podcast
  • Store
  • Contact
Home
Reviews

Planning For Burial – Below the House

Scott Murphy
March 9, 2017
Reviews

At their cores, Desideratum and Below the House are linked; two sides of the same loss. Thom Wasluck has always channeled the entirety of himself into Planning for Burial, and on his Flenser debut with Desideratum, he manifested pure sorrow into a hazy blend of shoegaze and ambient drone metal. Yet, it’s on Below the House that Wasluck’s music truly morphs into “doomgaze,” as his songwriting has taken on a starkly more direct, cathartic approach to coping with life’s tribulations. Whereas Desideratum was an ode to internal suffering, Below the House is Wasluck’s outward diatribe against a callous world, unwavering in its cruelty but malleable to the glimmering hope lying beneath his lamentations.

The album’s most obvious example of this is opening track “Whiskey & Wine,” a near about-face from anything Desideratum had to offer.  From the gargantuan blackgaze riffs reminiscent of Lantlôs to Wasluck trading in his ethereal croons for piecing shrieks, everything about “Whiskey and Wine” feels like Planning for Burial amplified to a new level. Admittedly, the track is an overall short affair, reliant more on its immediate strengths rather than the building meditations found on Desideratum and Wasluck’s older projects. But this brevity makes sense given it’s the opening track, and it certainly grabs attention with ease due to both its stark contrast to what fans will expect and its overall terse but fulfilling development. This arc concludes with a blissful bell melody, which begins shimmering beneath the feedback-laden murk before glistening in a field of ambience. It’s a testament to the respite of the indomitable human spirit that, to at least some capacity, thwarts the sting of life’s pain.

 Elsewhere on the album, Wasluck resumes the core of his Desideratum sound, albeit with a noticeable twist. “Threadbare” sounds like a pre-reverb Planning for Burial song, and his shift from a more plodding, meditative style of song development to a stronger sense of post-rock’s build and release provides the track—and other songs on the album—with an added punch and sense of immediate urgency. Wasluck further embraces his “post-” affinities on “Somewhere In the Evening,” defined by a stirring, Pelican-esque climax throughout accented by ringing Panopticon-era Isis melodies in the midsection. And on the two part “Dull Knife” saga, Wasluck opens with a shorter, doomgaze-oriented “Part I” before stumbling into the lingering darkness of Desideratum‘s shadow on “Part II” (in a good way). The lightened tone on Below the House makes this approach feel less obscured, and the chorus of vocals amid the composition adds a touch of camaraderie to an album rife with lonely sentiments.

Below the House also sees Wasluck further spreading his electronic wings, both in interludes and as parts of full-fledged tracks. The glitching, ambient introduction he builds “Warmth of You” around sounds like a blissful Gas or Huerco S. instrumental, and the combo makes for a gorgeous unraveling as the song explodes into a morose rendition of My Bloody Valentine. Later on interlude “(something),” Wasluck’s electric tinkering and alluring melodies welcome the ultimate flattery of intermissions – prompting the listener to crave a full-fledged song from the ideas presented.

Wasluck closes with a title-track that asks “what if Nine Inch Nails played ambient post-punk instead of industrial metal,” with an answer that will surely leave listeners with an excellent impression to cap off an equally exceptional listen. Planning for Burial may have never put out a wholly happy record, and Below the House is no exception. But there is an undeniable thaw that’s occurred with Wasluck’s signature songwriting style—a slight warming that’s only enhanced his music by making it that much more earnest. There’s no denying life is a struggle, and the general, emotive quality of Planning for Burial’s output reiterates that ad nauseam. But there’s still hope; there’s always hope. It may be faint, just like bells within blackgaze or blissful ambience amid roaring guitar fuzz. But in Wasluck’s music as Planning for Burial, you get the sense that this end-of-life brainstorming has a silver lining. At the very least, there’s a recognition of eventual peace, and perhaps further still, there’s a recollection of the worthwhile life that came before.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2548950240 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

…

Below the House will be available via The Flenser on March 10th and can be purchased here.

ambientdoom metaldoomgazeDroneGasHuerco S.IsisLantlosMy Bloody ValentineNine Inch NailspelicanPlanning for Burialpost metalpost-rockShoegazeslowcore

About The Author

Scott Murphy

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger - something better - pushing right back." - Albert Camus

Related Posts

  • Coheed & Cambria – Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind

    Jimmy Rowe
    June 13, 2022
  • Artificial Brain – Artificial Brain

    Ahmed Hasan
    June 3, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Patreon

Ko-fi

Podcast

All the Heavy Lifting

Latest Reviews

  • Coheed & Cambria – Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind

    Jimmy Rowe
    June 13, 2022
    New Jersey post-hardcore turned prog-infused pop punk giants Coheed & Cambria need no introduction at this point in... Read More...
  • Artificial Brain – Artificial Brain

    Ahmed Hasan
    June 3, 2022
    “In space no one can hear you scream” read the tagline for Ridley Scott’s Alien, as imposing as it was concise. Decades... Read More...
  • Astronoid – Radiant Bloom

    Jimmy Rowe
    May 27, 2022
    Established in 2012, Massachusetts-based at Astronoid built a cult following within a pocket of the prog metal communit... Read More...
  • Moon Tooth – Phototroph

    Eden Kupermintz
    May 5, 2022
    By now, Moon Tooth have garnered themselves quite a following in the progressive metal spaces. This is no accident; the scene is hungry for the kind of upbeat and unrestrained music that Moon Tooth is creating. Good news then: Phototroph is by far the band’s most energetic and “poppy” release, and I mean that in the best way possible.