Thrown are a minor phenomenon even before their debut album. Their entire catalog consists of a five-song EP and the singles built on it, and that has somehow earned them well over a million monthly streams on Spotify alone. Furthermore, there was never a hint of a Spiritbox or Sleep Token situation surrounding them, where the narrative of “upending metal” was an inevitable cog in their rise. You’d almost think Thrown have the marketing team of Jesus Christ himself behind them, because there’s no earthly way they should be amassing numbers like that. The.
The truth, as always, is much more mundane. thrown have simply benefited incredibly generously from Spotify’s algorithm, getting stuck as an autoplay or suggested artist at the bottom of virtually every hardcore and metalcore playlist. (Supposedly their productivity is the result of taking a cut of revenue for better placement, though you’ll be hard-pressed to find that anywhere other than the oh-so-reliable metalcore source Reddit.) So I don’t necessarily want to fudge the numbers, but it’s still an exaggeration of the reaction you’d expect from a band as consistently “just OK” as this one. And that’s the thing – aside from the usual mob that screams and hollers and makes faces at anything new with the “-core” suffix, how big would thrown’s reach be under normal, non-business-minded circumstances?
Do you actually want to get to know a few bands that are empirically doing “less well” than Counterparts? Stray From The Path. The spirit within. All these are actions that sound similar and that a reasonable mind would consider greater, and they are also a much more prominent. They act as figureheads of the scene, and not just because of their numbers. Thrown away, while… not. They carry more weight than the cavalcade of Glup Shittos that metalcore produces every day, but that’s about it.
It is already a point that thrown’s material sounds largely the same, and Excessive feelings of guilt does not deny this. There is a more straightforward hip-hop front on bitter friend And look at mebut even they quickly degenerate into more of the same. That “same” is a type of metallic hardcore that isn’t exactly dripping with innovation. You know the kind – the stock, robust, deep growling grooves you find on page one, line one of the metalcore handbook. It’s honestly Really forgettable and relying entirely on their own abilities to avoid sinking even lower. Playing well and doing the right thing is all they have; there is no blossoming personality that could take over at any point.
Perhaps the closest thing to being “original” is the brevity of these songs. Many of them are under two minutes long, perhaps because thrown trims away every bit of excess fat to create the leanest, most direct product possible. …well, it’s lean, for sure; you’re never thrown off the beat or blindsided by any kind of deviation here. You’re never really surprised either, because there’s no room for that. thrown seems almost completely uninterested in anything other than reducing metalcore to its most basic essence, which works well for a tight series of beatdowns in a live setting. On an album, however – which you may have paid money for and hope to get something out of – a series of pieces that might pay off satisfactorily or even stick in your brain after the runtime isn’t a great result.
It’s almost worse that thrown aren’t exactly a travesty of a band. If you want the metalcore beats smashed into oblivion without holding back, this is a heavy, tightly produced approach to it. On all fronts, they are Do sound good, from an impressive crunch that never gets watered down or worn down to Marcus Lundqvist, who as a vocalist is often the band’s best feature. Really strong control of his scream can go a long way, as long as the goal is to reinforce Thrown’s brawler persona. They don’t have much else to do anyway, so focusing on raging rage and retribution is a good, fitting tactic.
But maybe you have noticed how much more interesting it is to talk about it to as to. Yes, believe it or not, the story of a band quietly skyrocketing with barely any music is more compelling than finding out that said music is hampered to a disturbing extent by its limitations. Big numbers only mean so much; they are no substitute for average creativity. One would hope that would have been drummed into them by now, but apparently not. Apparently a little popularity and knowing how to trick the streaming system (not necessarily in that order) can fill the gaps left by deep, profound mediocrity. Without any of those things Excessive feelings of guilt would get so lost in the mess that you’d need a damn search and rescue team to ever find it again.
For fans of: The Spirit Within, Losing Your Way, Counterparts
“EXCESSIVE GUILT” by thrown will be released on August 30th by Arising Empire.
Words from Luke Nuttall
