Album Reviews
On their first new album since 2011’s self-titled release, By A Thread hit all the right notes. Forged in Vancouver’s post-hardcore scene in the late ’90s, the band first left their mark with Last of the Daydreams, a Revelation Records cult classic. Following some lineup changes and a couple of quiet years, core songwriters Sean Lande and John Franco are back now, joined by Gob drummer Gabe Mantle, with Mirrored Life, featuring their most expansive music to date.
The opening combo of ‘Void’ and ‘Dyed In The Wool’ is downright impressive. The songs shimmer, ebb, and flow in the best of ways before bursting wide open at just the right time. ‘Sub Rosa’ is another album highlight, even more brooding than the tracks before it. The album’s second half finds the band diving even deeper into the atmospheric side of their sound with a song like ‘Tempest’ and 'Gravely', which even brought A Perfect Circle to mind;
Channeling grief, growth, and hard-won perspective, By A Thread have made an album that should appeal to fans of bands like Thrice, Renee Heartfelt or No Motiv while also showing just why people consider Last Of The Daydreams a cult classic.
Mirrored Life track listing:
- Void
- Dyed In The Wool
- Sub Rosa
- Connaught
- Tempest
- Radiation
- Gravely
- Mirrored Life
Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.
