If you haven't been following along, know that between making gorgeously seething albums, Thou has a thing for cover songs: Soundgarden, several from Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Black Sabbath and Minor Threat, to name a few. But last year, it was a thoughtful and gutting take on Vic Chesnutt's "Coward" — recorded with another extremist doom-metal band, The Body — that stepped up Thou's game. The two groups return for another collaborative cover in Nine Inch Nails' "Terrible Lie" and, well, prepare to be pummeled by self-pity.
Originally released in 1989, the Pretty Hate Machine track came at the height of Trent Reznor's Soft Cell'd woe-is-me rage (ex: "My head is filled with disease / My skin is begging you please"). The Body and Thou play to that naive angst in shivering feedback that mimics the original's ping-pong synths. Thou's Bryan Funck issues searing verses, while The Body's Chip King shrieks the "terrible lie" hook, until righteously dumb-as-hell breakdowns slam this industrial sad-bastard fest into the damn ground.
You, Whom I Have Always Hated comes out Jan. 27 on Thrill Jockey (LP, CD).
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