The Spirit That Guides Us (ON TOUR!)

after two years in which the spirit that guides us primarily balanced its past, summing it up with their “we are under reconstruction part 2” dvd, the dutch/german six-piece now announce their grand reopening; the new album entitled “don’t shoot, let us burn”.
tstgu clearly did not take the road most traveled. where many acclaimed hardcore bands tend to develop more towards pop (as tstgu appeared to do on “north & south”), tstgu’s new shop stores more, bigger, louder and more militant. tstgu has returned to its hardcore roots and beyond – more singeing dissonants, fatter riffs, more space for the maniacal screams but also more glorious choruses per square megabyte than ever before.
“don’t shoot, let us burn” magnifies the contradictions that were present in tstgu’s work before, and seems to draw inspiration from the dark, spheric hardcore riffs of benea reach but also the cinematic new wave of depeche mode and the films by david lynch, with the vocals sometimes taking on the cure-like qualities, for example in the breath-taking “control”.
“don’t shoot, let us burn” certainly is also thematically-wise the heaviest and most outspoken work yet produced by tstgu. the band paint their struggle with evil and self in piercing imagery, sojourning between ruthless self-analysis (“moth and rust”) and determined hope (“reign on high”). tstgu dress in black and wear white mourning bands ('ash-band'), which also speak of better times ahead despite the dust that can hardly be wiped from their faces for now. still, in the sea of static of “99”, tstgu breathe the hope of the shipwreck victim who’s sure that eventually he’ll be found and will reach his destination (“the island of the blessed”).
this urgency is kept over the whole length of the album, where the hardcore riffs are given the free rein (“reign on high”, the final of “we’re killing time”) but equally so in the mid tempo pieces where layered guitars reminiscent of starflyer 59 and kyuss step to the forefront (“reflections of the fall”, “looking back”).
“don’t shoot, let us burn” speaks of a reality that crawls under the skin and does not go away. tstgu wear mourning bands and roll up their sleeves for battle. the first thousand copies come in a black jewelcase wrapped in an actual 'ash-band' and filled with ash ('the ash-band edition'). the record will be released in the benelux countries on sally forth records in 2008, preceding the release in the usa, japan and the rest of europe.

LIVE VIDEO "MOTH AND RUST" AT THE HEDON IN ZWOLLE

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