This Will Destroy You, Relentless Garage, London

Mid European tour, successful instrumental four-piece This Will Destroy You grace The Relentless Garage with their undeniably epic presence. The band hail from San Marcos, Texas and have been together since 2005, releasing numerous EPs, two albums and touring extensively. Often being described as post-rock, they reject this genre, bassist Donavon Jones even saying “Fuck post-rock, and fuck being called post-rock”. Fair enough. The band instead describe their sound as “doomgaze”, a delightful combination of doom-metal and shoegaze, which we feel fits quite nicely.

Following a great support act in the form of Codes In The Clouds - a British band with a similar sound - TWDY take to the stage. The room is exceptionally dark save for a couple of stage lights shining out into the crowd like searchlights. Though starting off slowly, their music certainly doesn’t lack intensity. Lead guitarist Jeremy Galindo seems to be channelling the recently departed Ryan Dunn with his beard, baseball cap, sunglasses and effortlessness cool. Jones, on both analogue synth and bass guitar (alternately, not simultaneously) headbangs whilst sitting down – a look that he works with ease.

After a couple of minutes, the progressive music has progressed and we are completely overpowered by what can only be described as massive sound. It’s emotional. The music soon calms down again, creating a relaxed atmosphere that with the now ethereal lighting and smoke, is very soothing. TWDY proceed to manipulate the audience in this way for the next hour. Mid set, during a ‘loud’ period, the audience are exposed to a blinding light and an intense, ringing, increasingly disorientating noise. The experience is almost supernatural and though disturbing, it is so very, very cool.

This Will Destroy You’s sound is perfect – everything is so individually accurate as it fluctuates between emotions across the vast soundscape. As someone once put it so very well “The quiet parts are tear jerking. The loud parts, while equally tear jerking, are brutal”. The interesting thing about their performance is that, a la Brontide, all of their songs blend into one another, making it near impossible to tell where one ends and another begins. Their whole performance is one big, cinematic journey and the audience love it.