Band:	Thine
Album:	The Dead City Blueprint
Style:	Progressive rock
Release date:	April 28, 2014
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. Brave Young Assassin
02. Flame To The Oak
03. Out Of Your Mind And Into A Void
04. The Precipice
05. The Dead City Blueprint
06. A Great Unknown
07. The Rift
08. The Beacon
09. Scars From Limbo
10. Adrift Through The Arcane Isles Of Recovery

Disclaimer: This isn't metal. If you are a metal and only metal kinda person, best be off with you.

Hailing from Peaceville, home to early/mid 90's corpsepainted Norwegians howling their hatred of Zarquon and disgust for society because their mum and dad didn't buy them a pony for their 6th birthday, we have Thine, who sound exactly nothing like most of the PV roster you might be familiar with on this site.

Thine play atmospheric (dark) rock/prog. Or so other authors have decided. Apparently modern rock is as tag-nerdy as Metal. Which is to say its moody music that is far more complicated than simply bashing out barre chords.

Songs have a bit of that post-* approach to them, in that many build up from quieter verses to some more energetic choruses, like the opener "Brave Young Assassin". But this isn't a post-* so said formula is far from the end-all, be-all of song construction.

"The Precipice" does a great job of maintaining upbeat energy throughout, while others, such as "Scars From Limbo" remain lethargic.

All are laced with some great-sounding harmonies? I love the guitar tone, helps make the whole thing sing.

I'm a bit undecided on the vocals. For the most part they are good, particularly during some of the more emphatic choruses. Some of the quieter, more tender moments didn't totally connect with me.

As far as the whole "dark" thing goes, remember this is a "rock" rather than "metal", so perhaps modern Anathema is a better comparison than, say, oh, most of my metal collection. It's not superhappyfuntime, but it sure isn't soulcrushing black void. (Incidentally they recently opened for Anathema, and have done so twice before, so there you have it.)

Perhaps this is why I'm kind of flip-flopping on my overall appreciation of the album.

It's a beautiful day today, Sun is shining, little buzz from my cerveza lunch, with this playing as I type. It's good.

Earlier this week, when stuck in a largely unadorned cement apartment, on a cold and rainy day, sans WiFi and connection to the outside world, feeling a tad alone, it resonated really well and I enjoyed it much more.

So I guess that is definitely a good indicator. Most of my favorite music isn't just something I pop on whenever, I have to be in a frame of mind/mood to appreciate it.

If you like to occasionally stray out of the metal world and like rock that is neither pop saccharine nor power chord-heavy beer swilling anthems, this might be worth a spin.