Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou
The Helm Of Sorrow
Following their extremely well-received (and rightly so) collaborative album, May Our Chambers Be Full that was released towards the end of last year, Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou have released another collaboration entitled The Helm Of Sorrow and it’s another stunning piece of work
This collection of four songs follows a similar path to May Our Chambers Be Full but shows more sides to the collaborative talents of the artists involved and Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou have certainly demonstrated their skills of coming together again.
The Helm Of Sorrow opens with the haunting Orphan Limbs, a stripped-back masterpiece complete with strings and shimmering guitar that echoes so many great grunge records (and another nod to their previous effort, one which shone as a paean to grunge and its inspiration to both artists). It starts off as a beautiful lament with Rundle‘s stunning vocals laying her soul bare before the track explodes into a cathartic duet full of emotion and anger, as opening tracks go, its a hell of a start. From then on in, it’s music of just as high caliber and takes you on a journey that both of these artists will lead you and captivate you.
The heaviness of Thou takes centre stage on the hypnotic Crone Dance alongside Emma Ruth Rundle‘s beautiful vocals and this marriage of both styles is mesmerizing. The pummeling riffs and grooves that propel Recurrence show Thou at their most powerfully heavy with Emma Ruth Rundle adding an anthemic turn to proceedings before their cover of Hollywood by The Cranberries finish things off, a brilliantly heavy lament that sees a driving groove that does stay faithful to the original but also gives it a more powerful feel to proceedings and is another example of the breadth of their musical inspirations that began on May Our Chambers Be Full, and it does feel that they are both perfect companion pieces to each other and complement each other so well.
The only downside to The Helm Of Sorrow is that it is only four tracks but when they are as good as they are, it just begs for repeated listens, and like May Our Chambers Be Full, it will be on repeat for many months to come.
This is another immense collaboration between two artists who have so much in common yet both totally do their own thing and hopefully they will make music again as the quality they bring out when they work together is both inspiring and magical, with The Helm Of Sorrow being perfect proof of that.
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou‘s collaborative EP “The Helm Of Sorrow” out now via Sacred Bones Records.
LISTEN & SHARE THE HELM OF SORROW EP
https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sba008-emma-ruth-rundle-thou-the-helm-of-sorrow
Words: Gavin Brown
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