Review of the New Thursday/ Envy Split Album

A split between Thursday and Envy might seem odd at first - the former is a band who saw a surge in popularity during the emo explosion and still fall back on screamo conventions, while the later is a long-running Japanese hardcore group that have transcended their genre thanks to a penchant for post-rock structures - but over the years the two bands have dabbled in some of the same areas, infusing their sounds with experimentation and passion.

Thursday takes up the first half of the split with four new songs. The first, "As He Climbed the Dark Mountain," has all the makings of the classic Thursday sound. Soaring vocal lines and are punctuated with backing shouts, while the drums are wild and unrelenting and the guitars dance about with jagged precision and pin-point riffing. It's the clear guitar work here that is most interesting however, during the second verse the speedy staccato recalls funk music without sounding at all out of place. Sure, there are disappointing and cliché moments here, but the clean guitar work and eerie outro strike remarkably fresh chords.

Next up comes "In Silence," an all instrumental track that starts with what sounds like a homing beacon bleep and some crashing waves. Piano and ambiance are all we are treated to after with bits of programmed drums popping in. The song is slow-moving and recalls the band's split mates, but manages to also not feel lengthy. An echoing guitar line cries out in the background for a short time before the full band kicks in with the powerful charge of an epic film score. The guitars are massive wall of perpetuating chords while the drums seek to shake the room and we are handed a healthy dose of fuzzy attitude as well.

The band's second instrumental track (and there final on the spit) called "Appeared and Was Gone" does not well at all compared to "In Silence." The programming here all sounds like something Trent Reznor did in the early '90s with drum patterns that are just too common. The emotional rise and fall of "In Silence" is also missing making for a dull passage. Luckily, the band's other song included here, "An Absurd and Unrealistic Dream of Peace," is a monster of a rock track. Singer Geoff Rickley sounds desperate and pleading as the band build a crushing onslaught of weariness around him. The chorus's use of synth is a nice touch that recalls some massive choir.

Envy kick things off with a beautiful track called "An Umbrella Fallen Into Fiction." A clicking, snapping drum sound sets quietly in the background while a soft guitar line and small beeps fill the foreground. Some spoken word vocals kick in and the scene is set. Things are comfortable but worried, as if some great tragedy has just ended. The threat may be gone, but everything around is still ruined. The band keep up this hushed approach for four minutes before the a buzzing wall of distortion slowly rises in the background. When the full band, and the screaming hit it is a beautiful moment of catharsis. It is almost as if meditation has failed and now our hero is merely crying out in frustration.

Follow up, "Isolation of a Light Source" is a much different song. Right off the bat the band are driving on all cylinders. The drums are like scattered gunfire, while the guitars burn into with the track with speedy strumming and an impressive density. This is classic envy, a band that can manage to evoke so much emotion in the context of a hardcore song. The vocals sound sound, angry, scared, and elated all at once and you can't help but be caught up in the emotion.

Envy close things out with another slow burner. "Pure Birth and Loneliness" moves along at a calm pace with delay-rich guitars, haunting spoken-word, and a relaxed drum beat. Eventually the signature build begins with a continuous drum roll and some shining guitar before the dam breaks and the massive sonic assault of Envy is unleashed. What is interesting is that the band seem to work more with major-key movements now and it adds to the complexity and density of their sound.

So maybe all the songs here aren't fantastic, but both bands do dish out something worth hearing making what could have merely been a novelty release something well worth checking out.