Mares Of Thrace - The Loss - review
Mares Of Thrace - The Loss - review
Tracklist
01. Anticipatory Grief02. The First Stage: Shock
03. The Second Stage: Denial
04. The Third Stage: Anger
05. Disenfranchised Grief
06. The Fourth Stage: Bargaining
07. Complicated Grief
08. The Fifth Stage: Depression
09. The Final Stage: Acceptance
A review by
musclassia May 22, 2025
I enjoyed The Exile when it was released, albeit with reservations, but I could hear potential to produce something greater, particularly once bandleader Thérèse Lanz strengthened her collaboration with drummer Casey Rodgers. Personally resonant subject matter is also a common catalyst for music inspiration, and The Loss is very personally driven, a 45-minute exploration of grief dedicated to Lanz’s father, whose classical guitar is used to perform the wistful instrumental closer, “The Final Stage: Acceptance”. That inspiration has driven Mares Of Thrace to take a step up from that last album with this latest effort.
The band are still much the same stylistically, with roots firmly in sludge metal, but the range is perhaps expanded this time around. Of note, the record kicks off with a flurry of sludgy hardcore venom, “Anticipatory Grief” erupting immediately in sickening screams, blasts and fast churning guitar riffs. Hardcore isn’t a consistently strong feature across the whole album (although some of semi-clean shouted vocals appearing on some songs have a punk/noise rock feel to them), and after this initial flurry, the duo bring sludge riffs and slick guitar licks to the fore, descending into murky trudging in contrast to that initial aggression.
There is a range of vocal approaches employed across The Loss; the default is a higher-register screamed sound, but there’s also the aforementioned harsh-edged shouting, spoken word (see near the end of “Anticipatory Grief”) and harmonized clean singing. The latter is first heard in earnest during the lengthy “The First Stage: Shock”, and the delivery reminds me to a degree of what SubRosa used to offer, albeit with notably less accomplished execution. One thing that has improved this time around is the production; it’s not a radical shift in quality from The Exile, but for a group that has struggled with capturing the best of their sound in the past, the mix is a better match for both the thick sludge riffs and the lighter touches heard on the album.
There’s quite a bit of back and forth between slow heaviness, surges of faster aggression, and prolonged quiet contemplation during “The First Stage: Shock”, but other songs are more consistent in their sound; “The Second Stage: Denial” and “The Third Stage: Anger” stick resolutely to the slower sludge riffing, with lead guitar licks adding most of the relative variety. That said, there are some surprises to be encountered, as the otherwise trudging “Disenfranchised Grief” unexpectedly works in some piano on top of its grim, groovy foundation. That piano comes back in a big way on the album’s climax and longest song, “The Fifth Stage: Depression”. At over 9 minutes, it is the other wide-ranging track here aside from “Shock”, bookended with sullen, melancholic piano; after the initial tryst, it moves for a good chunk of its runtime into bleak instrumentation characterized by eerie dissonance and bruising jagged chords, offering a fitting accompaniment to the anguish in Lanz’s vocals, but by the end of the song, one can perhaps start to hear some of the acceptance already arriving after the depression, the piano adding a touch of beauty at the conclusion of a tough, tormented ordeal.
Conceptually, the music on The Loss effectively captures the emotions of the stages of grief, but even without the context of its subject matter, the album is a powerful and very accomplished sludge record with a solid foundation of riffs, good musical range, and key evocative moments that add touching emotion to an otherwise grim experience.
Written on 22.05.2025 by
Written on 22.05.2025 by
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Unfortunately the album didn’t have that emotional impact on me that the band obviously aimed for. I respect their vision and there’s some serious talent here, but they are not there yet; you know, the big leagues. Their next one should hopefully achieve that breakthrough.
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