Rumor has it that this fall, HBO will be showing a brand new docu-comedy based on the lives and tribulations of a fresh young-faced "hardcore" band from New Jersey, USA. Cameramen will follow the young tykes, Thursday, as they hit the road, record their album and get up to allsorts of hilarious hijinks. The following is an excerpt from the pilot episode to be aired late September; it finds the guys working on their brand new album 'War All The Time':

Geoff Rickly: (vox) "Now, I think it should start off with a quiet intro."
Steve Pedulla: (guitar) "yeah, and then just for dynamics and stuff, the rest of the song should be really LOUD!!"
Tim Payne: (bass) "Yeah, totally, dudes!!!"
Tom Keeley: (guitar) "Oh yeah, and the chorus should be even louder!"
Tucker Rule: (drums) "Oh guys, how awesome are we? So how does it go, quiet intro, loud verse, even louder chorus?"
Geoff: "Yeah, dude, and then we totally repeat that!!"
Tim: "Oh wait man, just to mix things we should break down into a quiet middle eight, oh and we've got to have really introspective lyrics and stuff!"
Steve: "Oh, dude. That is like the most totally awesome idea EVER! I bet no-one has ever thought of doing that!"
All Together: "WE GOT OURSELVES A EMOCORE HIT GUYS! WE ROCK!"

(The above skit is merely a creation of this writer's imagination, I regret to inform that at the moment, such a program will never be aired)

As you can tell by what was written above, I have picked up that maybe Thursday like to follow a particular formula. On the group's third album, 'War All The Time', almost every song seems to follow the same blueprint, a blueprint that has almost been worn thin after it found it's place in the 80's DC hardcore scene and has been floating around in hundreds upon hundreds of bands ever since. Using the quiet/loud dynamic seems to have become as comfortable to Thursday, and numerous other so called 'hardcore bands', as putting on a pair of socks in the morning.

The album's opener, 'For The Workforce (Drowning)', is a standard affair, all distorted guitars and screaming harmonies, with singer Geoff Rickly pleading "Just stop making copies, of copies, of copies!"; kind of ironic then, that this song sounds like any number of bands coming out of the states right now. In fact, if you took this song out onto the streets, gave it to random members of the public and asked them who the band were, I wonder how many names people would reel off until they gave up or actually came up with the correct answer? That's not to say the song is bad, per se, I mean it's a proficient rock song, and you get the impression that Thursday's emotion isn't faux and they actually believe in what they are doing. But what 'For The Workforce..' has in energy it more than lacks in any sort of originality.

The rest of the album is pretty much the same, but there are standouts, or at least one. 'This Song Brought To You By A Falling Bomb', terrible title aside, is easily an album highlight. It's an extremely simple but touching piano and vocals only ballad, and it's a welcome break from the usual Thursday affair. It's a track about being overwhelmed by the outside world, and turning to life as a recluse; Rickly gently croons simple yet tender lines such as "I'm not answering the phone -- let it ring". It's a truly impressive track, and you get the feeling that if Thursday would do more to step away from the usual quiet/loud formula that they seem to adore, then maybe they could make a genuinely great record.

-Ian Lappin