the thief and his mother - dead language

The Thief And His Mother

Dead Language
self-released; 2013

3.7 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

The Thief and His Mother recently released their debut EP entitled Dead Language, which contains four songs that delve into the post-rock hardcore genre. What I immediately noticed about the band was that the lead singer sounded similar to Tim Harrington from Les Savy Fav. You wouldn't confuse the two side-by-side but their delivery is similar in that they strain their vocal chords and have a wide range as well as have a poppy appeal to them that is hard to ignore.

Most people like variety and that's one thing that is apparent on this album. What you have to give these guys credit for is mixing things up when you don't expect it. For instance I was expecting to hear a spaced out lead guitar when the first song “Animos” is made up mostly of in-your-face electric guitars that grind. 

The production sounds great throughout as you can clearly hear the vocals on top of multiple guitars, crashing drums and a steady bass. The tone of the guitars are just about perfect and it seems as if they put a lot of time into making sure they coalesced; sometimes making both sound distorted and at other times covering one of them with multiple layers of reverb and delay. One of the highlights on the album is “Superbia; Fides,” which begins with distant clear, delayed guitars as well as some exceptional drum work that drives the song. Before you know it the  song gets pretty hard only to revert back again to too melodic “Explosions In The Sky” type of guitar work. The song is compact and versatile and only increases in intensity until it ends. The closing number “Pruna” has interchanging guitar work that provides most of the visceral energy, the most intricate drum work, and the most demanding vocal work. This is a song where I think the band knew they could work it a bit and flex their muscles.

While the debut is good you can tell the band is still finding their rhythm. The songs are energetic and catchy but sometimes feel repetitive. Besides slight blemishes this EP is more than solid and being that the band is about a year old we should have a lot more yet to come.

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