:: PRESS FOR BY THE THROAT ::
"Defiantly new, and distinctively dramatic... a feeling of proximity to overwhelming power... all-encompassing and eerily real. (BY THE THROAT) is a sharp-edged Hi-Def encounter with the dangerously sublime." -Wire Magazine
"...As equally terrifying as it is breathtaking, as claustrophobic as it is expansive, and as squarely rooted in the 21st century as it is timeless. Minimalism for the post-apocalypse... The best album of 2009" -In Your Speakers
"Its a hollow, unforgiving, brutal yet utterly beautiful record full of deep intricacies that wont let you go. 'BY THE THROAT' indeed." -NME
"This is horrible. Horrible in its lesser-used sense in which it means 'utterly brilliant'." -Mapsadaisical
"BY THE THROAT is a break in the evolutionary ladder, a jump across links in the Darwinian chain, a re-mapping of sonic DNA. Frost has taken modern music off the respirator and sent it once again trekking into the wild unknown." -The Silent Ballet
"Music community, brace yourselves. Ben Frost is set to occupy 'best of' lists again... ominous and devastated... Frost at his most beautiful... It’s shocking how fresh and unique this album is, a truly singular artist at the height of his craft." -WORD- Like a Scientist
"...in 2007 I described his music as ambient hardcore – psychologically raw, punishing... That album left a lasting impression on me... I didn’t think that 'Theory Of Machines' could be outdone, that is until I put on BY THE THROAT. Frost’s onslaught is incredible. I stand applauding." -Headphone Commute
"This is no easy ride... you'll be exposed to music that's both viscerally hard on the ears and achingly beautiful... Formidable and far-reaching... (BY THE THROAT) might be one of 2009's most singularly impressive listening experiences and very likely the only record you'll hear this year whose repertoire consists of both luscious classical chamber compositions and the hunting calls of killer whales." –Boomkat
"BY THE THROAT plunges into a dense, dark and threatening network of subterranean galleries... If 'Theory Of Machines' was the sound of engineering gone wrong, By The Throat is that of nature shutting down, bringing all life forms down in its fall." -The Milk Factory
"Ben Frost had influenced what BY THE THROAT 'looks' like to me before I'd even heard it, memorably telling the Krakow Post its visual palette is 'like the glow from a lava flow, or a burning church.' ...a stunning roiling compact of pained human breath, serrated slashes of random frequency and spurts of electronic noise flapping across the stereo channels." -Drowned In Sound
“This album is a far darker affair and makes the work of most avant garde musicians sound like Girls Aloud. Like the soundtrack to an imaginary horror film, By the Throat boasts a collage of noise that is discordant and utterly unsettling.” –Irish Independent
“Reaches right out of the thought bubble and punches you out of your skin.” –BBC, David Stubbs
"an obsessively compelling, captivating, and often frightening creative and original odyssey into a world both natural and synthetic... it attracts and repels so convincingly that one must listen to it over and again in order to uncover its many -- often terrible -- secrets." -All Music Guide
"...a sonic experience like few others ...It's fearless and its frightening and it demands to be heard shit-your-pants loud" -AU Magazine
"...it’s compelling, mystifying, disturbing, and beautiful... When the record ends, you’ll wonder where you are, how much time has passed, and whether you ever want to feel this way again." -The Agit Reader
"His music doesn't pulsate or tick - it flows and merges. It’s the sound of clenching and unclenching, of tension and release... Sounds are fed, sustained and brought to slaughter... If nature is a playground to Sigur Rós, then to Ben Frost it’s a battlefield." -Grapevine
"The real wonder of BY THE THROAT is its levels of frightening beguile... not for the faint of heart... it is not only my album of year, but my number one deep listening album of all time..." -The 405
"simply too emotionally confrontational and too aurally invasive to be an after thought... growling and howling from instruments and real wolves alike, Frost's work burrows deep, digging its claws into your psyche... a ferocious muscularity and a grizzly aura that feels too real to be labeled horror... just about as powerful a musical experience that one is likely to have... Make room in your top ten of 2009 and welcome the new king of compositional doom." -The Forest Gospel
 Click on images to download high-res versions. Below photos by Bjarni Grímsson. |
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