Prepare Thy Body For The Summer Of Thou

For just over a decade, Thou has made music that is, at times, grueling in its pace and extreme in volume, but that can also be painfully beautiful — the Baton Rouge metal band has a penchant for pitting Bryan Funck's searing vocals against dense, majestic melodies. The group's shows are invariably deafening, rattling your clothes if they aren't already covered in sweat; sometimes, it feels like the whole room is heaving in time to Thou's slow-motion sludge. In this interview with NPR Music's Lars Gotrich, vocalist Bryan Funck and guitarist Andy Gibbs talk about the four new records coming from Thou this summer and their decision to explore grunge, acoustic and even drone music.