Thin & The Wind in the Trees Split (Review)

Make sure to grab your favorite tranquilizers and dive right in! This combination will have your heart beat at the highest possible frequencies – US wildfire grinders Thin and The Wind in the Trees deliver a split EP via Twelve Gauge Records. Last year already got me interested in Thin with their latest album dawn that was described by our team member Nino as “Norma Jean on crack” and I couldn’t come up with a better description. This was my first contact with The Wind in the Trees, though, but I think that’s one of the positive effects of a split release – you might come in with one band you know and you leave with even more material to torture your ears with.

Thin open up this split with the first track “I Don’t Go on Walks Anymore” and instantly showcase what you’re in for. The easiest way to describe the playstyle of Thin is via gpm (genre-jumps per minute). On this first track, you can expect 4 gpm within those 47 seconds. It feels as if every riff change is an entire genre jump on this track. Beginning with a weird guitar sliding, fast drumming Mathcore sound, Thin jump towards a short sequence that feels very screamo-esque and could meet you in a Touché Amoré track, immediately kicking forward to screamo Black Metal riffing that reminds of Jøtnarr and similar bands – then you are thrown back into the opening riff only to instantly forward to the finishing sequence that’s again a new part grinding your ass off. Sentence too long? Then you’d better avoid listening into this record.

Although the riffing on “Feeding Your Best Friend His Last Meal” lowers the gpm frequency, the drumming still pushes you back and forth on this track and the riff that kicks off the second half of the track is incredibly catchy. It’s similar when talking about the 17-seconds-track “Swear to Dog” that Thin bluntly throw in your face. The vocals on these tracks are as strong as on dawn again – it feels as if vocalist Ashley Levine consistently screams his lungs out while the rest of the band succeeds not sticking to any genre rules at all. What’s the most salient factor about the Thin side, though, is the track “He Was a Friend of Mine” that is a two and a half minute singer-songwriter track that opposes pretty much everything regarding the rest of the split. It is a good and catchy track – I wish I was able to contextualize it, though, but I’m not and remain utterly confused.

The Wind in the Trees had their last output with a gift of bricks from the sky next to a live album a year later. The track length is the first aspect that shows a difference since the two contributed tracks both are above one minute. There are of course similarities to Thin which is the common denominator on this split and also a factor that’s gonna lead you to like either of the bands depending on which one you knew before (assuming you only knew one).

Nevertheless, the sound of TWITT differs a lot from what Thin is playing. Especially the bass steps into the forefront on the first track “Eons from Mortality” which leads to a highly forceful and blasting sound. The searing guitars that buzz around in utter madness cause mere chaos. The drums alternate between blasts and driving patterns and serve with intense pressure. Although the main trait to identify the sound of TWITT is chaos – similar to Thin – the variety regarding the fact how this chaos is created is wide. TWITT especially convince with high speed, noisey background sounds and relentless energy.

The second track “Thoughts Entombed by Gravity” is the longest on the entire split at almost 3 minutes and starts off by slowly entering with a very doomy sequence that showcases a very crushing, pulsating and pounding sound. This is then overtaken by dissonant chords and high speed grind sound that is powered up by strong interludes holding a focus on either the guitar or the drums before jumping into the next sequence that then combines a furious combination of Death Metal and Grindcore tone and eventually jumps back to the doom sound of the beginning – only to finish off with one last stroke of speed. Especially that embedding in this doom framework highlights the energy of the Grindcore sound in between even stronger.

This EP is available in three different colors, all of which look damn neat and should be grabbed as soon as possible. Although the split clocks in at a little less than 10 minutes, the sound on those minutes is absolutely overwhelming, delivering a riffing that fills more than can be heard on comparable EPs that are way longer. The possibility of constructing chaos is an aspect that both Thin and TWITT are more than capable of and after this split you should probably stay tuned for future releases of both of the bands.