Album Review: Throes – The Colorless Light of Emptiness (Church Road Records)

Exploring themes of loss, grief, self-hatred, corruption, climate collapse, and human fragility, Throes are back with their brand-new album, ‘The Colorless Light of Emptiness’. The sludgy, metallic, hardcore noise mongers will release it via Church Road Records on October 16th, 2026.

Metallic hardcore with such a venomous edge, Throes may have released the harshest sounding album of the year. A ten-track album that is so heavy, so chaotic, so raw, and so abrasive that it numbs the mind. Yet, it is more listenable than it first may seem. In fact, it’s a one hell of a grower. I’m not saying it’s accessible, because it’s not, but if you have an open mind and a taste for aural carnage, you’re going to love this.

The themes it explores are dark and cold, but they are real and that gives the album more bite. There’s no doubting Throes’ authenticity here, and the passion they exude is downright startling, a lot of the time.

It begins in unbearably noisy and coarse fashion with Western Violence and Revenge Death. Two tracks that perfectly encapsulate the stomach-churning intensity of Throes and how effortlessly heavy they are. The weight of the sludge that oozes out of them, the force of the metallised hardcore, the chaos of their noise characteristics, it all combines to create a special set of tracks and that extends into the destructive Joy, the energetic Eat Glass, and whatever the fuck ApePersonAnimalHuman is (I love it nonetheless).

One word that comes to mind is brutal. Another is brawny, and another is brilliant.

It’s around this point, with Spiritual Debt and The Line that I found the numbness beginning to set in, and while the impact of the last part of the album is slightly blunted because of this, Throes still managed to make me feel like my head was being caved in. It turns out that calling your track Pain and going as hard as Throes does on it results in a very apt title.

Their penchant for heaviness, how they express themselves via a musical melee, combined with their ability to distil their rage in such an eventful way, makes this one special album. There’s simply no getting sick of this kind of intensity, even as things reach a downright desperate, post-like, level with the penultimate track Beg, and Basura ends things in overwhelming fashion. I was out of breath come the end.

Throes – The Colorless Light of Emptiness Track Listing:

1. Western Violence
2. Revenge Death
3. Joy
4. Eat Glass
5. ApePersonAnimalHuman
6. Spiritual Debt
7. The Line
8. Pain
9. Beg
10. Basura

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