Feel the dread of The Body, Thou

Their tunes come on like a big gulp of codeine: disorienting, pulse-slowing, numbing.

The Body's end-of-days doom crawls by in the anguished roar of some feral, sharp-toothed beast with badly broken legs.

Repetition, volume, discomfort (theirs and ultimately yours), all figure prominently in the Providence, R.I., duo's by-turns-hypnotic-and-jarring explorations of torque and texture, which stretch past the eight-minute mark at times.

The vocals, when present, are a near constant scream, occasional samples heighten a sense of foreboding and dread, and the guitars exert a downward gravitational pull.

It's some relentlessly oppressive stuff, and the same could be said of much of the catalog of New Orleans' Thou, with whom The Body is touring.

The Crescent City is infamous for grime-covered feedback fetishists with a fondness for monolithic riffing: Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Crowbar, the late, great Acid Bath, etc.

And Thou is among the most punishing of them all.

Their lumbering dirges are of a cast-iron density, painted black with grimace-inducing vocals and a persistent sense of imminent danger.

Together, The Body and Thou will show any lingering New Year's cheer to the gallows.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@review journal.com or 702-383-0476.