THOU and EMMA RUTH RUNDLE's Collaborative EP 'The Helm of Sorrow' Today on Sacred Bones - Reddit Indieheads AMA Today

EMMA RUTH RUNDLE & THOU’S COLLABORATIVE EP  THE HELM OF SORROW OUT TODAY VIA SACRED BONES LISTEN + SHARE: BANDCAMP, SPOTIFY, APPLE JOIN REDDIT AMA TODAY @ 3PM EST HERE

Press Image By Craig Mulcahy Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle (appearing courtesy of Sargent House) today release The Helm of Sorrow, a companion EP to last year's widely acclaimed collaborative album May Our Chambers Be Full, which landed on countless album of the year lists.   The four songs that make up The Helm of Sorrow are included in the diehard edition of May Our Chambers Be Full and are available from today as a standalone EP, in addition to digital retailers via Sacred Bones as part of the label’s Alliance Series. Ordering options here.

EP Artwork | Photo By Craig Mulcahy  The Helm of Sorrow Track Listing: 1 - Orphan Limbs 2 - Crone Dance 3 - Recurrence 4 - Hollywood While their solo material seems on its face to be quite disparate, both prolific groups have spent their lauded careers lurking at the outer boundaries of heavy scenes, each having more in common with DIY punk and its spiritual successor, grunge. The debut straddles a similar, very fine line both musically and thematically. While Emma’s standard fare is a blend of post-rock-infused folk music, and Thou is typically known for its downtuned, doomy sludge, the conjoining of the two artists has created a record more in the vein of the early ’90s Seattle sound and later ’90s episodes of Alternative Nation, while still retaining much of the artists’ core identities.  The visual art accompanying this work was created in collaboration with preeminent New Orleans photographer Craig Mulcahy. The faceless, genderless models are meant to emphasize this pervasive state of ambiguity and emotional vacillation, the images falling somewhere between modern high fashion and classical Renaissance. LISTEN & SHARE MAY OUR CHAMBERS BE FULL BANDCAMP, SPOTIFY, APPLE Praise for May Our Chambers Be Full + The Helm of Sorrow: "seemingly one of the best metal ‘collab’ records I’ve ever heard. ERR’s doom and etherealness mixed with the sludge ‘riffage’ of Thou makes for an experimental trip that’s both incredibly emotive and thoughtfully extreme." FORBES “A blend of Sludge, Grunge, and Shoegaze serves as a stylistic backdrop for the dynamic synthesis and occasional clashes between Rundle’s harrowing restraint and Thou’s distorted violence.” 8/10 GHOST CULT “Rundle is no stranger to heavy music, but she provides a gloomy and dreamy counterpoint here, singing gentler sections before Thou pull everything into darker territory. It also just sounds huge.” STEREOGUM   "Rundle really teases out the melodic gloom thats always underpinned Thou while Thou sets her up as this cathedral shaking front person" Lars Gotrich for NPR   “a concise, cathartic, heavy album with an emotionally affecting core” TREBLE (#1 METAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR)   “one of the year’s best records” DUSTED   “The juxtaposition of Rundle’s long distance melodies and Bryan Funck of Thou dredging up his guts to scream into the sky shows two sides working together to create something surprising and new.” THE FADER   "rich and expansive... Emma and Thou's respective approaches to music latch together like puzzle pieces on this album. Emma's metal adjacency makes Thou a perfect band to add a little more weight to her music, and Thou's flirtations with melody and atmosphere allow Emma to immediately assimilate into their world...some of the most exciting guitar-based music released this year." BROOKLYN VEGAN   “Ancestral Recall already hints towards an album of the year contender: the way Rundle’s delay-heavy wails float atop Andy Gibbs and Matthew Thudium’s guttural grind is utterly spell-binding.” GUITAR WORLD   “Thou’s crushing sludge metal intertwines with Rundle’s own stylistic guitar playing and singing, and they trade off on vocals on the lead single 'Ancestral Recall'. The results are something new and adventurous for both parties.” CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND   “haunting, monolithic” REVOLVER   “behemoth...one of the best songs I've heard this year” METAL INJECTION   “There’s plenty to latch onto, whether it’s the neck-rending riffs, the snarling/soaring vocals or just wanting to vibe out and let the darkness envelope you; it’s a display of artistry, the antithesis of bands who just want to game the Spotify system with two-minute bangers. Painstakingly created in 12-hour practice sessions across months and cities, seven musicians working toward one goal has been well and truly achieved.” KERRANG!   “emotional and enchanting” MXDWN   “A stunning expression of force, fragility and fortitude” HEAVIEST OF ART    “The result is unanticipated and stunning...This collaboration sees its principle figures not only bringing their talents to the table, but stepping outside expectation for a surprising push into sonic shape-shifting and a greater melodic good.” METAL HAMMER   “The whole LP would be a great release for either artist, but it's the brilliant convergence of sensibilities that sets it apart in the landscape of alternative metal...an excellent entry point for any would-be Thou fans, and a potential game-changer for Rundle ones.”  LOUD AND QUIET Thou: Web, Instagram, Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes Emma Ruth Rundle: Web, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple