Thursday And Envy Get Fired Up

Thursday And Envy Get Fired Up

Matthew Winters

It is almost inevitable that most people lose their intensity with the onset of age, but sometimes that anger and frustration can boil over. That is what happened to New Jersey-based Thursday and Japan's Envy on their new split-EP.

Both bands are known for their groundbreaking work in Screamo, a genre considered a fad for mallrats. Previous efforts from both bands have set the standard in the genre because of both bands' use of atmospheric music, instrumentals, electronics and an honest delivery that cannot be ignored.

Once again they set the standard with their new EP. The effort, which will released in early Nov. on Temporary Residence as a vinyl/CD package, is both cathartic, and a motivator towards positive action. Thursday has never been this fired up. Their songs, two full songs with lyrics, an instrumental and a remix, are some of their best material to date. "We hold our hearts like cigarettes," roars Geoff Rickly on the centerpiece song "An Absurd and Unrealistic Vision of Peace." He has not sounded this frustrated and angry in a very long time. While the two songs with lyrics on the Thursday side are some of their most inaccessible material to date, and their most urgent, when combined with the instrumentals. It is a good lead-in to Envy.
Envy produces some of their best, most accessible songs yet. Their signatures are still there, huge atmospheric dynamics, spoken words, and, like Thursday, a very honest delivery, but it seems to be more accessible for new listeners, who will be turned on to their music for the first time.

While both bands are veterans of a tired scene, they have transcended that and become something that is above it all, and all this while maintaining their anger and frustration, amplifying it to a degree that is something to behold. Their age as a band has not dwindled the fire they have inside them. Instead, it has been put into focus.

Originally Published in The WSU Signpost 10/31/08