Thornhill announce their debut record, 'The Dark Pool'

3 September 2019 | 11:41 am | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

Thornhill's debut record, 'The Dark Pool,' will arrive October 25th via UNFD.

Thornhill's debut record, 'The Dark Pool,' arrives October 25th. 



Following on from previous single, 'Coven,', Thornhill last week revealed the deets for their first full-length album, 'The Dark Pool,' along with its newest cut, 'Nurture.' It's exactly the trajection you'd expect from Thorny given their last EP, 2018's 'Butterfly,' and deals with lyrical themes of feeling inadequate and unrequited love in the face of needing positive reinforcement.

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

Thornhill are now keeping a lot of things in-house for their new material; bassist Nick Sjogren is mixing and mastering these tracks and the band is also self-producing. And as a young and upcoming band, that's a bold move (and one I hope works out for them), but it also runs the risk of their music coming off as incredibly insular. Something that you can even hear on 'Nurture'. This ranges from vocalist Jacob Charlton sitting around the same handful of notes for his usual melodic structures; the usual lo-fi EQ parts on the guitars and the typical djenty riffs; as well as Ben Maida's tight but busy and somewhat over-played drumming, a performance that's also being oddly buried down in the mix a little bit here.

That being said, there's a nice addition of some synths, and those distant, "levitating" vocal lines still sound pretty dang cool. Yet it all feels like Thornhill sorely want to deeper explore more progressive music ideas - just from the drum playing and the vocal dynamics alone - yet it sounds like they're held back by being the metalcore band that others maybe want them to be. So I really do hope that there are more interesting parts and surprising ideas revealed on the rest of their debut album.

Check out the superhero-loving and heavily Kick-Ass-inspired music video for 'Nurture' over yonder. 'The Dark Pool' lands October 25th.



'THE DARK POOL' TRACKLISTING:

1. 'Views From The Sun'

2. 'Nurture'

3. 'The Haze'

4. 'Red Summer'

5. 'In My skin'

6. 'All The Light We Don't See'

7. 'Lily & The Moon'

8. 'Coven'

9. 'Human'

10. 'Netherplace'

11. 'Where We Go When We Die'