Screamo’s pioneers grow up

One thing becomes instantly clear the second you hit play on Thursday’s new release: The era of the band’s 2006 album A City By The Light Divided is finally over.

After messy splits with two separate labels, Thursday are in a unique position for the release of their next album. Thursday’s latest release, a split release with Japanese post-hardcore band Envy, isn’t quite the new album fans have been clamoring for, but it certainly makes for a quality holdover until the release of their new album, which is expected to come out next year.

The split starts with four Thursday songs and ends with three Envy songs. Although the fourth Thursday song is a remix, the three proper new songs are pitch-perfect.
The opening track “As He Climbed the Dark Mountain” has elements of the chaos that made City By The Light Divided such a refreshing listen, but the production is much closer to the cleaner work of War All the Time.

“As He Climbed the Dark Mountain” and “An Absurd and Unrealistic Dream” both feature great anthemic choruses, while “In Silence” is a spacey and atmospheric counter to the energy of the other two. With these songs Thursday continue to prove they are one of the most innovative bands around. 

While the Thursday tracks have the perfect balance of energy and ambience, the Envy tracks lack the balance that make the Thursday songs so exciting. Envy’s biggest problem is their vocals.

There isn’t a single moment when singer Tetsuya Fukagawa really belts a note or screams something that actually connects with the listener.

Maybe it’s the language the barrier, but the delivery certainly seems lacking. Outside of the lackluster vocals, Envy certainly have their musical moments. The back half of “Pure Birth and Loneliness,” especially, sticks out among the rest.

Thursday’s contributions to the split alone are enough to warrant buying it, but with its wide availability on the Internet there is no reason not to check it out.