Amongst Thieves – Amongst Thieves (2018)

Amongst Thieves is a five-piece post-hardcore band from York made up of Josh, Andy, Alex, James and Ricky, together creating an intense yet harmonious style generating their unique sound.  Following from their previous EPs, Revise.Reform and March for the Sun, with their big tracks ‘Alone’ and ‘101’, this album is an excellent debut for the band.

The first track, ‘Nothing Left’, has an intro starting off with dark, atmospheric sounds with some toy xylophone hits reminding me of the horror doll movie Annabelle.  Then out of nowhere comes the intense riffs, caught me off guard.  Personally, I feel the song is okay; I guess the stops within the song do not appeal to me and ruin the track’s flow.

The second track, ‘Blind’, picks itself up with its fast pace bringing in harmonious clean vocals, a catchy chorus and good riffs.  ‘Absent Minds’ is one of my favourites from the album because it focuses more on the melodic vocals with the correct use of screams, riffs and only the occasional stops, which work well in this song as compared to ‘Nothing Left’.  My only issue with this track is that it is too short.

In ‘Hate Again’ you can feel the emotions within the track getting that industrial metal vibes within the intro.  Amongst Thieves released a music video for the track ‘Hate Again’, and the video truly reflects the aggression and anger in the song using clips from the London riots, student protests, etc.  Overall, the track is really good with good use of clean vocals and screams.  You feel the intensity of the song.

‘In The Night’ has good use of electronic sounds.  This works well as it gives the track melodic vibes providing the song with more depth.  I feel like this melody could have been used more within the song and could have made ‘In The Night’ a stand-out piece within the album.  Overall, a good song.

‘Pulse’ is another one of my favourites from the album as it differentiates itself from the other songs.  The track has more clear singing with vocal focus than screams; and with great riffs and a good instrumental, it generates more of an easy listen.

‘Sick’ is the seventh track on the album and didn’t do much for me until the second build-up, but it still felt as if the song was holding something back or as if something was missing.  I couldn’t pinpoint it.  The song is okay, in my opinion; however, the eighth track ‘The Golden Ratio’ is brilliant. I am glad the band created a music video for this song.  Good use of clean vocals and screams with a catchy chorus, good riffs, drum work, correct pause timings and use of electronic sounds builds the overall intensity of the work.  Outstanding!

‘The Silence’ is a good track with a constant fast pace and upbeat sound thanks to the drummer, which really makes the song stand out on the album.  Great riffs during the intro and use of clean vocals and screams.

The final track, ‘All I Know’, is a unique track on the album as it brings an acoustic guitar into the song which I was not expecting.  The guitar was only used for a short time and, in my opinion, it would have been better if there was more acoustic guitar.  On the other hand, the use of the guitar did work for me in this song.

The band have talent, the lead singer is a capable vocalist, and the rest of the group are highly skilled. Their music is entertaining, their music videos are good and reflect the songs well.  Overall, Amongst Thieves have great potential as a band and this album is a good one.  I would, however, like to see the band experiment more like they did with the ‘All I Know’ acoustic guitar solo; it works!  This also includes the electronic experimentation the band used which gave the songs different depth in ‘The Golden Ratio’ and ‘In The Night’.  On the other hand, the album was good, and I honestly will keep Amongst Thieves on my radar for any future releases.  Nice one lads!