Album Review: Thumos – Symposium (Snow Wolf Records)

US progressive post-metal band Thumos will release their new full-length album ‘Symposium’ via Snow Wolf Records on February 14th, 2023. A ‘theatrical’ presentation of Plato’s famous dialogue on the god of love, Eros.

What an incredible band Thumos is, having blown minds with previous releases ‘The Republic’ and the collaboration with spaceseer, ‘The Course of Empire’. Now, with Symposium, it’s time to blow some minds again.

Richly detailed, technically impressive, dramatic, and atmospheric, Thumos’ new album is both familiar and different in equal measures. Heady themes, heavy emotion, thought-provoking and executed immeasurably well. It demands your full attention, and your full attention is what you’ll give it.

The bar is set high with the opening track, Phaedrus. Thumos unveiling a sumptuous expansion on their sound with immediate flair. The melody glimmers, the atmosphere builds to a crescendo, and immersion takes hold. A high bar that is surpassed with ease as Thumos now unveil Pausanius and overwhelm the senses with a mesmerising instrumental journey.

It’s just the start though, and Thumos offer up a bit more of a post-rock surprise with the exceptional Eryximachus. Layered beauty, with a touch more energy and that constant inclusion of flair. The sign of a more confident band. Taking their undeniable technical proficiency and giving it a more layered style. It’s the kind of thinking that takes a band to the ‘big time’, something that seems way more possible based off tracks like this.

Though, the distinctive opening melody of Aristophanes is just as impressive. Here, Thumos get a fair bit heavier. Transforming their instrumental sound with chunky bass and drums, layered with ethereal guitar chords.

The second half of the album features a couple of epics, the first of which is Agathon and sees Thumos’ awe-inspiring sound taken to an even greater level. The post-metal is strong in this one, but the layer of technical detail is what hooks. It might very well be the greatest song the band has written. Even if the following Socrates comes extremely close with its thick emotion. One of the most heart-wrenching tracks Thumos have produced and, yet again, another stunning listen.

The immersion is well and truly in place as the melodrama of Diotima marks the penultimate portion of the record. Before the 10+ minute finale of Alcibiades ends things in extraordinary style. A finale that takes everything good about Thumos and rolls it into one. If you can imagine that, it means this track is extremely bloody good. A track befitting of its position as the closing part of this theatrical presentation.

Simply brilliant. Simply unforgettable. Thumos have done the impossible by creating an album that somehow surpasses The Republic. Symposium is a must-listen.

Links

Bandcamp | Instagram