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World Exclusive Track By Track: Thursday’s ‘No Devolución’

The long-awaited return of the post-hardcore pioneers sounds nothing like you might expect. Nonetheless... it's brilliant.

Here's what we know about Thursday in 2011: a post-hardcore band, right? Known for big choruses, chunky guitars and lots of screaming, right? Wrong: Thursday's new album 'No Devolución' is a huge leap forward from anything they've done before and will - if it takes a month or a year to make its mark - cement them as one of the most inventive and powerful bands to have come out of the US in the last decade.

So what does it sound like? Read on...

Note: This isn't the official Rock Sound review - that's coming in a later issue.

Fast To The End
A very, very big opener – crashing guitars give way to a sprinkling of synthy riffs and galloping drums, with Geoff’s vocals sitting somewhere in the middle. It’s an abrupt change from what Thursday are known for, as despite some of the signatures being present and correct (propulsive percussion and a real sense of scope) it immediately sounds less frenetic and more… glacial than perhaps anyone was expecting. And the phasing guitar middle eight feels like something Led Zep would’ve done if they’d grown up with the internet rather than just books. In a good way.

No Answer
Another synth-led opening that sounds like 80s soundtrack specialist Vangelis providing beats for a boxing movie: by this point it’s already clear that this is nothing like anything Thursday have ever done before. But while the walls of noise come from layered keyboards and chiming, clean guitars rather than the brutal riffage they pioneered way back, the breaksy drumming just gets under your skin and evokes none other than Radiohead, except without the achingly of-the-moment release strategies and videos of a dancing frontman. Take note, Thursday: that’s how you become PROPERLY big – silly videos.

A Darker Forest
If we were stoned, this would be absolutely terrifying – it starts off all dark and brooding and edges towards the menacing. But beneath the airy (and pretty spooky) melodies there’s some proper guts to the song, as it has an almost-heartbeat-like pulse pushing it forwards. Impressive, and enough to make sure we’re definitely not skinning up until the album’s finished. Never know what’s around the corner.

Sparks Against The Sun
Right, we’re kind of on familiar territory – here it feels like we’re edging back into classic Thursday territory, except instead of exploding into a firestorm of punk fury ‘Sparks Against The Sun’ grows slowly for almost three minutes before a buoyant chorus comes out of nowhere and transforms the whole song into something incredibly invigorating. It’s widescreen rock that doesn’t feel contrived at all – like what the band have been aiming at on the slower moments of their past two records – and is a definite highlight. If this were, say, bellowing out during a particular August festival, then we’d raise our warm beer in the air and say: yes. This works.

Open Quotes
The fact it comes as a shock that ‘Open Quotes’ kicks off with distorted guitars is, in itself, pretty weird – since when was it unexpected for Thursday to sound like, well, a punk rock band? But even when they’re delving back into their past (sonically speaking, this isn’t exactly a retread of ‘Understanding…’) there’s enough new ideas here to make what could have been a by-numbers screamer into a punchy head-nodder. And the outro is a colossal slab of rock that makes us want to go stand on a mountain with a sword, or something. Which, let’s be honest, is yet another good thing.

Past And Future Ruins
Another glimpse of the two worlds of Thursday colliding – when the slow-burn intro kicks in it’s like they’re spanning a decade’s-worth of influences, putting them in a big cauldron and brewing up a potion called ‘Let’s Rock The Fuck Out, Man’. But just when they’re settling into a groove they switch everything up again and you’re left shaking your fist at the sky, wondering where the big riffs went. Funnily enough, after a couple of seconds you don’t miss them. Also wins extra points for the excellent use of a glockenspiel.
Thursday - Past And Future Ruins by Epitaph Records
Magnets Caught In A Metal Heart
They could play this twice as fast and it’d be pretty much the greatest punk song ever written, but at this speed it’s like a coiled spring of brilliance. It pulls back, pulls back, pulls back… and then goes massive and mental like a hurricane, except with huge “woah-woah” backing vocals rather than deadly winds. And if you ask us, that’s how it should be.
Thursday - Magnets Caught In A Metal Heart by Epitaph Records
Empty Glass
Geoff sings so softly during the intro of this that you can hear that little smacking sound when he moves his lips – yeah, that’s a bit weird but it’s like he’s the Metatron commenting on the plight of us little humans. The effect is a bit spooky but as he’s subtitled by a humming keyboard (and later the full band) it’s an incredibly restrained piece of songwriting. There’s a lot going on but nothing is overdone – a bit like a very well-balanced meal. Lots of flavours and spice, not too much dressing. Delicious.

A Gun In The First Act
Okay, it’s not our fault that, because this song opens with an accordion, we instantly think of the soundtrack to Leon and start imagining Jean Reno fucking shit up with extreme style. Get past that unfortunate piece of cultural conditioning, though, and ‘An Gun…’ rocks hard – and cleverly, because no sooner has it settled into a rhythm everything drops out… only to crash back in again in a thumping whirr of noise. Guessing you need to see this one live to get the full force, but through headphones it sounds like one of those nightmares where you’re just about to get run over by an oncoming truck but instead wake up and have to check to make sure you haven’t shat yourself.

Millimeter
Wiry and strong – like a strong wire, maybe – this is a straight-ahead rock tune that stands out because it’s much more direct than much of ‘No Devolución’. And that’s not meant as either a positive or negative – more of a reminder that when Thursday want to be more of a straightforward rock band they’re pretty damn killer. Essentially, if they wanted to be the next U2 you sense they could pull it off, such is their command of melody; that won’t happen, mainly because U2 are dicks and no one wants to follow in the footsteps of dicks.

Turnpike Divides
The most old-school track on the album, ‘Turnpike Divides’ has the big chorus, the fist-in-the-air riffs, the knife-through-butter guitar lines and the full-speed-ahead sense of momentum. Like the preceding track it’s a glimpse both forwards and back through Thursday’s entire history and suggests that when it comes time to move on, they can do whatever they want without worrying whether or not they’ll be able to pull it off. The talented bastards.

Stay True
Everyone loves an eight-minute song to close an album – well, they did in the days before a song cost 79p – and the placement of ‘Stay True’ shows that Thursday aren’t above shooting for the moon in terms of making grand artistic statements any more. And rightfully so: it’s a rich, tender and effortlessly powerful tune that feels like it’s moving in slow motion. “Stay true… nothing else matters, none of this is real” sings Geoff (in the past he’d probably have howled a line like that) before the band whip up a suitably noisy outro that closes the album perfectly.

Our one-word summary: stormy.

For pre-order bundles, click here.

Ben Patashnik