Only Thunder

Lower Bounds

Written by: TL on 15/03/2009 20:41:14

Finding myself in a rare position ahead of the release dates of (most of) my pending reviews, tonight means that I'm also finding time to pick up on the trend of processing some very late but also rather great albums that were missed last year;

Enter Only Thunder, a fusion of seasoned vets from the obscurity of Denver's underground rock scene, releasing their debut LP "Lower Bounds" on October 28th of last year. Their music can be described in current terms as falling in line with the retro-post-hardcore of bands like Polar Bear Club and Tribute To Nothing, while a clearer hindsight will also reveal a likeness to Hot Water Music or perhaps early Moneen. Chances are of course, that if any of these names ring a bell to you, you should already be holding your hands high with excitement, and in order to avoid unnecessary suspense I'll just reveal that "Lower Bounds" has its share of moments that are worthy of such excitement.

The album reaches an early peak with its second track "Back And Forth", which quickly starts pumping awesomeness into your ears by means of the energetic way its first verse kicks in, before it moves into its simple but catchy chorus, which is coincidentally also what I mainly draw my Moneen-reference from. For the first two songs, Only Thunder have been almost identical to Polar Bear Club though, but that changes a bit on the eerie third track "Fucking Your Way To The Middle", where vocals have been largely dismissed in favour of some more dramatic instrumental adventures than you'd normally expect from a band as punk as this.

Some of the same tendencies are shown in "Computer Says No" as it precedes "Splatterhouse", the song which I've grown the most fond during the course of my newfound relationship to the band, and I wonder if that could be because it is also the song which owes the most to emo-/post hardcore bands of the 90's? Whether or not that is the case, the album continues its seeming zigzagging between this kind of style and the dramatic one presented earlier, as "I'm A Witch, Burn Me" follows suite with some monumental riffage and a now total dismissal of vocals (the "WOAH-OH's" near the ending don't count).

These five songs situated on the first half and middle of the record are the ones that make the greatest impression upon initial listens (8-10), but admittedly, the reason I'm not as familiar with the last last five is more likely to be caused by my flimsy attention span rather than any lack of consistent quality on the band's part. While listening I do sometimes get the feeling that the simplicity of the lines yelled by the lead singer are a bit one-dimensional compared to especially the grander instrumentals I have spoken of, but most fans of this kind of music probably won't even give that a second thought. The scratched delivery is a genre trademark after all, and more so than clever variations in pitch and rhythm.

Thus the impression one should be left with after "Lower Bounds" has run its course is one of yet another solid post-hardcore/punk rock release from an American underground that is seeing more and more of the light of day. It doesn't blow me away quite the way Polar Bear Club or Scream Hello! have but still.. It's the kind of music that us reviewers love, simply because it carries a passion, a straightforwardness and a uncompromising attitude that is opposite to so much stuff out there, and if you listen to half as much music as we do, there's no reason you shouldn't like it almost as much as we do.

8

Download: "Splatterhouse", "Back And Forth", "I'm A Witch, Burn Me"
For The Fans Of: Polar Bear Club, Tribute To Nothing, Moneen, Hot Water Music
Listen: myspace.com/onlythethunderrock

Release Date: 28.10.2008
Bermuda Mohawk Productions

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