Usually Thursdays are good days: It’s almost the weekend, it’s the night of “Must See TV,” it’s a fun night to get drunk, etc. But with the band Thursday, it’s the exact polar opposite: anger, anger, a little sadness, and another hearty helping of anger.
That voice. The voice of Thursday is an angry one, no doubt. But anger, particularly on War All The Time, is a stale, no, stagnant, and let’s face it: a pretty lazy approach in trying to be heard. The music is hard and uncompromising and mostly of all, repetitive.
That voice. Singer Geoff Rickly’s voice teeters on the brink of such hopelessness and frustration, you wonder if he at all realizes what he is singing about. Geoff, you’re trying way too hard to come across as angst-ridden. We get it, we really do.
On the album’s opener, “For the Workforce, Drowning,” he cries, literally, about “falling from the top floor/your lungs fill like parachutes/the windows go rushing by/the people inside, they’re dressed for the funeral in black white.” On “Division St.” sad sack Geoff sings “I’m repeating ‘good-bye’ to the memories/the fever that will not break the night/is pouring down/it’s not enough to put this out.” How about this heartwarming little jingle from “M Shepard”: “The stage is set to rip the wings from a butterfly.”
Rumor has it that Thursday will be taking on ladybugs next.
It goes on like this for over 40 minutes: Fast-paced and pissed off.
The break neck speed of War could be a good thing, but it just isn’t. The boorish nature of the album, ironically makes for a slow moving, methodical sound.
Thursday is proving with War All the Time, that the angry, attention-craving style of nu metal is still kicking, full-force, non-stop.
God help us all.
– Joe BugBee
