Slow Crush : Thirst
Since forming in Leuven, Belgium in 2017, Slow Crush have delivered some memorable and enjoyable shoegaze, by turns melodic and abrasive. The four-piece’s 2018 debut full-length album Aurora was characterized by thick, crunching riffs from guitarists Jelle Ronsmans and the since-departed Jan Jouck, but the sound of its 2021 follow-up Hush was somewhat softer and gentler, featuring a subtler, more melodic guitar sound and haunting vocal performances. They are also an enchanting and atmospheric live band, something I got to witness myself when they supported Gouge Away at a show in London in 2019. With their third album, Thirst, Slow Crush said in pre-release statements that they have aimed to deliver their heaviest riffs and dreamiest vocals yet, as part of a sound that bassist and lead vocalist Isa Holliday says is intended to be “experience[d]…in 4D.”
The album is off to a commanding opening with the immediacy of “Thirst” and equally urgent “Covet.” These songs achieve an affecting contrast between the soft, beguiling melodicism of Holliday’s vocals and the heaviness of Ronsmans and Nic Placlé’s overdriven guitars. In less skilled hands, the disparity between these two sonic qualities might sound jarring, but become complementary in Slow Crush’s hands. They employ a seamless use of a saxophone at the end of “Covet,” taking a sometimes jarring instrument and blending it naturally into the mix. The guitars on “Cherry” and “Leap” are slightly softer in places, but Ronsmans and Placlé maintain their alternately solid and wailing tones. On “Hollow,” in combination with Frederik Meeuwis’ drums, they remain abrasive in a more treble-dominated manner than any of the other songs on Thirst’s first side.
“Haven” and “While You Dream Vividly” are two heavy but relatively downtempo songs, the latter of which is perhaps the album’s best-executed realization of the band’s stated intentions for its sound, with Holliday’s vocals at their dreamiest as she and her bandmates play thunderously. She maintains this soothing, lullaby-style quality to her singing on the slower “Bloodmoon.” The album’s penultimate track, the soft, instrumental “Ógilt,” offers some welcome levity after all the firepower that has preceded it, before closer “Hlýtt” brings the record to a dramatic end. The song is a barnstorming, six-minute epic, on which Ronsmans and Placlé’s abrasive guitars are bolstered by some screamed backing vocals—a satisfying conclusion to an album on which the band’s performances live up to their stated intentions for the development of their sound.
Thirst is Slow Crush’s best album yet. On it, they successfully blend the loud guitars that characterized Aurora with the soothing, haunting vocals that dominated Hush. Ronsmans’ and Placlé’s performance styles remain at their peak, and Holliday’s vocals remain as beguiling as ever. With an abundance of enjoyable songs, Thirst reinforces Slow Crush’s status as a band that stands out within an increasingly crowded contemporary shoegaze scene through thoughtful songwriting and musicianship that has a precise, intentional brutality to it.
Label: Pure Noise
Year: 2025
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