Instrumental Imagery

This Will Destroy You, the doomgaze extraordinaires who emerged from San Marcos, Texas in 2004, released New Others Part Two swiftly and unexpectedly after the recent drop of New Others Part One. Before their dedicated fans could even get remotely familiar with the intricacies of the percussion-leaning New Others Part One, This Will Destroy You opened the floodgates with even more ear candy. New Others Part Two takes a turn towards textural electronica, sending listeners on a futuristic odyssey of intricate layers and experimental sampling. With both high-energy peaks and ambient lullabies, often on the same song, New Others Part Two is just as entrancing as its counterpart.

The closer of New Others Part One, “Go Away Closer,” was passionate but gentle, perhaps to ease listeners into what awaited in New Others Part Two in a seamless, flowing transition. The opening track on the follow-up album, “Sound of Your Death,” does the complete opposite. This Will Destroy You starts with a violent drum kick-off that is quickly joined by a wall of ringing electric guitar. This continues on, with slight melodic slow-downs and catch-ups, until around halfway through. Then the drums calm down, as do the guitars. Everything is much softer, with light melodies floating around the feathery percussion. With this sudden transition, “Sound of Your Death” creates an auditory representation of the intense last moments of life and the bliss that one can only hope follows it afterward. With such a profound opening track, This Will Destroy You launch the epic journey that New Others Part Two will embark on.

This journey takes many unexpected twists and turns, most notably genre-wise. Whether it be a subconscious result of music consumption in the digital age where everyone, fans and musicians alike, has more access to the wide spectrum of genres out there, or whether it be This Will Destroy You’s intentional experimentation with hip-hop production, it doesn’t matter–the result, the standout track “Clubs,” is a gorgeous amalgamation of different genres’ techniques and textures into a raw expression of pure emotion. Split into three distinct parts, “Clubs” plays a somber guitar melody in a manner akin to the moody lo-fi hip-hop beats that are gaining popularity on the internet, then transitions into a cathartic and shoegaze wall of noise and finally finishes up with an experimentally sparse guitar and drum duet. Particularly during the first third, “Clubs,” like the other highlights of New Others Part Two, evokes vivid imagery of a slowed cruise in a futuristic vehicle. The final third’s echoed spaciousness could also be visualized just as easily. This Will Destroy You’s cinematic buildups and breakdowns on tracks like “Clubs” prove to be one of the most enjoyable parts of New Others Part Two.

Though New Others Part Two’s shorter tracks, such the glitchy whispers of “Jesse Ray” or the choppy woodwind hums of “New Promise Land Inc.,” certainly don’t fall short of praise, an odyssey of a final track “Provoke” closes the two-part album off with a bang. Over eleven minutes long, “Provoke” takes its time to unfold its many layers of varying instrumentation and texture. The static from the previous track bleeds over onto “Provoke”’s elegant organ-adjacent synths, eventually joined by a swaying guitar melody and what seems to be a harmonica. Bright metallic percussion clicks away while the harmonica continues to stay at the focus. After a quick tremolo on a violin, This Will Destroy You’s signature wall of noise looms over before enveloping everything in its path. However, unlike most instances of noise rock, “Provoke” and its noisiest moments are not angry but rather victorious and proud. As they soften up and dissipate, This Will Destroy You paints a vivid picture once again–watery sound effects and electronic chirps illustrate a tropical paradise so perfect it had to be manmade.

New Others Part One focused on experimental percussion and the evolutionary nature of This Will Destroy You’s signature sound. New Others Part Two does something a little different: it takes the already vibrant production of most This Will Destroy You songs and pushes them even further against their boundaries into wordless snapshots, moments and even stories that ooze emotion with just instrumentation alone. On New Others Part Two, This Will Destroy You have added another dimension to their multi-faceted music, to breathtaking results.