Thou has always been a force of raw energy and unapologetic dissent, defying easycategorization and challenging listeners to confront the complexities of existence.Though often lumped in with New Orleans sludge bands like Eyehategod and Crowbar, Thou transcends genre boundaries, drawing inspiration from a diverse array ofinfluences spanning from '90s proto-grunge icons like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, andSoundgarden (all of whom they've covered extensively) to the raw intensity of obscure'90s DIY hardcore punk found on labels like Ebullition, Vermiform, and Crimethinc.Their latest record Umbilical, Thou's first full-length release of original music sincetheir 2018 Sacred Bones debut Magus, is their firmest nod to the latter - a record filledwith mosh-ready riffs, heavy breakdowns and scathing vocals. The band's aesthetic andpolitical impulses have always been punk and like anyone embroiled in the subcultureThou have been exploring what it means to exist within and without a rigid morality.That exploration takes thematic center on Umbilical and their self-assessment is asharsh as that of the world around them.They've called us anarchists, criminals, foreign meddlers, lunatics, dispossessed, relativists,utilitarians, egoists, passion maximizers, ascetics, negators of everything. Clearly, the "Thou"experiment is never going to appeal to audiences who demand that art rigorously enforce acoherent and righteous worldview.And yet, are we not ourselves constrained by our own rigid morality? In those quiet momentsof deep contemplation, when the bargains and concessions are thoroughly examined, whenwe yield before the Judging Eye-what is the summation of our choices? If the unspoiled selfbeyond the immensity of time were given voice, what pronouncements would be made? Whatwould such an internal audit yield? What undeniable character would be revealed?This record is for the radicals, the crackpots, the exiles who have escaped the wasteland ofcapitulation. This record is for the militants and zealots refusing to surrender to comforts, topracticalities, to thirty pieces of silver. And this record is most especially for the weaklings andmalingerers, burdened by capricious indulgence, hunched by the deep wounds of compromise,shuffling in limp approximation, desperately reaching back towards integrity and conviction.