Thursday

A City By The Light Divided

Written by: PP on 06/05/2006 07:48:15

It's been almost three years since we last heard Thursday's groundbreaking, heartscraping form of post-hardcore meets emo with a touch of originality that separates them from the rest of the bands in the genre. Let it be no secret that "War All The Time" is my favorite Thursday record of all time, partly due to its incredibly poetic lyrical analysis of today's society, partly due to its unbeliavably well thought out song structures that either dwell in beautiful stillness or burst at you with full velocity through scraping guitar work and Geoff's powerful clean vocals. The new album, however, follows none of the patterns we grew used to on the previous album. The direction the band has taken on "A City By The Light Divided" resembles far more their sophomore album "Full Collapse" than "War All The Time".

The songs have become messier, and the production is absolutely horrible and unacceptable for a major label act. It is often hard to distinguish the chords from one other, and during the heavier and harder parts it is nearly impossible to hear what Geoff is singing like on the opening track "The Other Side Of The Crash" or the ending of "Into The Blinding Light". On the other hand, "At This Velocity" is one of those classic Thursday tracks that's both strikingly powerful and utilizes the strong song structures the band is capable of writing. It's not a simple verse/chorus song, but extends far beyond that, and has possible the biggest amount of screaming you'll ever hear on a Thursday track. Geoff's desperate voice reminds you of that on "For The Workforce, Drowning" or "Between Rupture And Rapture" by his ability to sing from the top of his voice without breaking it into meaningless screaming.

I'm not saying this is album is horrible by no means. It just isn't anywhere nearly as good as the new Thursday album should have been after "War All The Time". The band spends far too much time exploring their instrumental capabilites in a few songs, and in my opinion, should leave the experimentation to bands like Isis and Tool and spend more time on producing more of the heartscraping vocal and lyrical work surrounded by simple riffs, yet effective and original enough to keep you on your toes all the time. Oh, and what happened to the non-existant title-track that was supposed to have Converge guesting?

Download: At This Velocity, Into The Blindin Light
For the fans of: Hidden In Plain View, Hawthorne Heights, Finch
Listen: Myspace

Release date 02.05.2006
Island

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