Well, Second Thief's long-awaited and much-anticipated new EP Floodgates is finally here and I, thanks to the fine folks at Dark Slate Records, have been awarded the pleasure of sneaking the first peak. Luckily for you (the reader), I will now share a brief account of my experience. Let's get right down to it.
The album opens harmlessly enough with effected clean vocals and piano. It then explodes into the much expected full band build... but wait, what's that? Something quite unexpected, the piano does not stop there! In fact, the most apparent change in the Second Thief style since Brainwashed is their newfound use of piano as a primary instrument throughout the album. But fear not, for the piano in no way means that the boys have gone soft on us.
Floodgates is a three song hard hitting thrill ride with a limitless range of emotion. It retains the all out, in your face intensity of the band's previous works, while the added elements of piano and production give it a somewhat classical and, at times, eerie and almost gothic quality.
Another change that I noticed in comparing this album to "old" Second Thief is the song lengths. Two of the tracks are just under six minutes in length and the other is just under five, however, there isn't a single point that feels dull or overdone. In fact, there are so many progressions and changes in Floodgates that it starts to feel like a solid full length experience, rather than an EP.
There are, however, two factors in this album that I might consider borderline setbacks. The first is the piano... Yes, I know I've spent a good majority of this review praising the addition of piano on this album. I just felt like there was a very small handful of points that it could have been beneficial to pull the keys back a tad and just let the guitars do their usual kicking in the pants. I definitely have to applaud Second Thief for venturing into this territory that is not only new for them, but also quite rare in this entire genre, however, there are a few times when it seems to slightly take away from the impact of the other instruments in play. The other issue is that I would have liked to hear a bit more vocals throughout. Don't get me wrong, there is certainly enough vocal input to adequately get the point across and, in many ways, the instrumentation on this EP does tell a story of its own. However, I, being a sucker for vocals, found myself wanting just a dash more of those delicious throaty bellows that we all know and love.
But enough with the "negativity". On the whole, Floodgates is a hands down, killer album. It is a musical labyrinth packed with so much raw emotion, heavy impact and just straight up original talent, that it is guaranteed to gain them new fans and bring all the old fans back for another delightfully strong dose of Second Thief.
Be sure to grab your copy when the floodgates pour out onto Itunes and Breezefire on December 6th!
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