Had a rough week? Feel the need to bury it in the ground where no one will ever find it? Need several tons of sludge, filth and slime to cover the grave site? Arizona’s Thra stands ready to spew forth all the mud, grime and bile you’ll ever need with Gardens of Rot, out via Camo Pants Records and Metal Swarm on April 12.
Listen to the album below and dive into the band’s infectious brand of death-laden sludge metal hell. Some sludge bands get lost in their own riffs and let their compositions linger a little too long without going anywhere interesting. Not these guys. The riffs are solid, and the band is good at carrying the narrative to several interesting places. And I absolutely love those vocals!
How do they do it? Well, maybe we should ask them!
What was the writing process for Gardens of Rot like?
With all of our music, we always start with the riff! That has to happen before anything else, and then once we know what the guitars are doing, we can begin to fill in the blanks with bass, drums and vocals.
Can you tell us how the title Gardens of Rot came about?
The name Gardens of Rot was inspired in part by the cover art itself as well as the subject matter of our songs, which mainly cover torture and suffering, so the idea of an overgrown garden dedicated to suffering and misery seemed to fit our music well!
What are some of the subjects and themes covered in Thra’s lyircs?
Mainly torture, suffering and drug abuse.
What are some of the bands biggest influences?
When we were writing, we listened to everything from Thin Lizzy to Boris as well as more obvious influences such as Primitive Man and Dystopia. Although some of our influences are more obvious in our sound than others than others, they are all in there!
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