The Body

The Body, a duo from Rhode Island, mixed post-rock and doom-metal on The Body (Moganono, 2004). It takes forever for the first piece, Untitled, to get out of its apathetic bombastic repetition , an exercise in gothic trance. The desperate fervor of The City Of The Magnificent Jewel and the witchy frenzy of Culture Destroyer sound antithetical to the slow, calm psychic trip of Falling. The 14-minute Final Words returns to the emphatic overtones of the first piece, except that there is much hysteria and pain underlying the evil massive whirling wall of sound and someone is screaming out of his head. Unfortunately the second half lets go of the tension and simply dies of starvation.

The duo followed up that album with two EPs, Copkiller (2005) and Even The Saints Knew Their Hour Of Failure And Loss (2006), but little else.

At last, All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood (At A Loss, 2010) marked an impressive quantum leap forward in all directions. The doom-inspired music is drenched in sound effects of all sorts. For eight minutes a 13-voice choir intones the static a-cappella madrigal of A Body before the booming drums, sirene-like guitar and infernal screams rise out of a volcanic explosion. Empty Hearth is built around a vocal effect created by treating electronically a vocal sample while slow, grinding rhythm and droning bass chords accompany a shamanic howl. Songs are prefaced and permeated with extraneous interferences. When there are no effects to deviate the meaning of the ceremony, there is staunch repetition, for example in Ruiner, like it was on their first album.
The full impact of their doom rock is rarely felt. A Curse begins with the unlikely marriage of the brainy rhythmic patterns of This Heat and the gloomy heaviness of vintage Swans before erecting a terrifying tsunami of sound around the usual flames of distorted shouts. The 14-minute Lathspell I Name You is a rhythmic tour de force (with drummer Lee Buford augmented with eight guest drummers) laced with violin wails and angelic voices. After a confused intermezzo, the piece becomes a straightforward ritual of self-flagellation by a suicidal werewolf.

Nothing Passes (At A Loss, 2011) documents performances with Braveyoung.

Anthology (Corleone, 2011) collects non-album songs.

Christs Redeemers (Thrill Jockey, 2013)

Haxan Cloak produced the Body's fourth album I Shall Die Here (2014), that contains six longer songs: To Carry The Seeds of Death Within Me, Alone All The Way, The Night Knows No Dawn, Hail to Thee, Everlasting Pain, Our Souls Were Clean, and the nine-minute Darkness Surrounds Us.

No One Deserves Happiness (2016)

Have Fought Against It, but I Can't Any Longer (2018)