Tithe - Penance - Album Review - Vintage Sludge Death Metal from Portland, Oregon, USA
Today I am writing about a massive discovery, vintage sludge death/black metal band, Tithe, from Portland, Oregon, USA, with their game-changer debut album, Penance.
Tithe - Palindrome (Official Audio)
This case has waited for a long time in my schedule because of the unfortunate war in Ukraine, getting back to it was possible only now I wonder why. While still dealing with the post-war complications in our lives here in Switzerland, listening to such music in such crazy times simply made me forget about everything else for a period of time. Tithe simply earned my respect with their true nature and character, who I consider as one of the most impressive metal bands I discovered lately.
After discovering these American gentlemen with Palindrome, which is currently the most streamed song in Tithe's discography on Spotify, I couldn't keep myself from checking out some other songs in the album. The moment Tithe captures your attention with their energy and 70s vintage metal sound, you simply want to hear more music with the same taste, character, and everything the album is magical about. I don't remember hearing such authenticity and professionalism in a debut album, a solid, timeless work exceeds expectations in every way.
The sound design job in this album can make any music sound incredible, in my honest opinion. The job was so carefully and artfully done, Penance, in my book, has many "timeless qualities" in it.
Musically, the influences point me to a tasty blend of Death's simplicity and philosophical approach to death metal with Mastodon's dirtiness, ugliness, vintageness, and melodic understanding. Everything the band musically built is accompanied by a vintage 70s character with a raw crunchy guitar sound, vast spacy dimension, and 70s psychedelic vocal mix with death and black metal style vocals. Classy work, professional execution.
Performance-wise Tithe blew me away with their live-performing energy above everything else. I enjoyed listening to their heavy parts as well as doomy and groovy, doesn't matter how ugly they musically got from time to time, the music always had my full attention from start to finish. Objectively, none of these songs are standard, there's no moment you feel like something doesn't belong to the album theme. Tithe, in this way, reminded me of two fantastic bands I personally admire, Death and Mastodon.
Tithe, band photoCredit: Unknown
On the other side of the work, I have got nothing negative to add about Tithe, and their debut studio album Penance. They achieved everything in the most respected way so far, everybody would feel proud wearing a Tithe t-shirt after listening to this album once.
Tithe, Band PhotoCredit: Unknown
When I put all these into account, I'd like to say that listening to Tithe is my latest big discovery, earned its place in Metalhead Community's Strongly Recommended Metal.
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