Thirdface – Do It With A Smile (Review)

The American Hardcore band Thirdface, which I became aware of some time ago through a few extremely sensational Hate5six live sets, released their debut album Do It With A Smile a few days ago. And what can I say, the long player is strongly convincing and disappoints at no single point. Energetic to the max and creative like no other album that Hardcore has produced lately. If you are into the bursting energy of Torso, the tempo of Spy and slightly chaotic elements that are wonderfully interwoven, you should definitely not miss this record.

Whoever thought that Hardcore has become monotonous over the years and thus partly boring is wrong. Besides the incredibly angry roar and nasty barking, almost nothing here is as you would expect from a record from this genre today. From the first note on, Do It With A Smile slaps right at you and thanks to the many changes of beat and tempo there is a lot to discover. Not only a very distinctive bass with rousing basslines, but also furious whirling drums that blast incessantly and over and over again end in groovy parts or 2-step passages. In general, the instrumental parts deliver a lot of diversity, which makes you want to stomp, punch and scream around. I especially like the tight solos, which are served equally by guitar, bass and drums and are connected at various points with a crisp “uuuuurgh” of the sawing vocals. The absolute highlight of all tracks, however, is the guitar playing done by Thirdface, which sets the various tempos and is so diverse that even after the 10th run-through you still find influences that you have not noticed before. More precisely, there is a lot of low shredding, but also dissonant riffing is incorporated as well as catchy dreamy parts that are delivered. These are spiced up with various noise and feedback and can captivate in several places. Despite the many different elements, the tracks do not seem overloaded at any point, always intertwine seamlessly and are bursting with energy.

From classic Powerviolence elements to chaotic banging, to very subtle indie sounds or groovy 2-step passages, the 12 tracks Do It With A Smile brings up altogether a whole lot of musical highlights and fire. Especially due to their partly unpredictable song structures, one inimitable aggressive hurricane after another blasts out of the boxes. The majority of the tracks are kept below two minutes and, as you would expect from this length, are so energetic that you start to sweat and foam with swelling rage after just a few seconds. Towards the end, there are two merciless midtempo stompers with ‘No Hope’ and ‘No Relief’, which will duly end the album and probably leave some listeners open-mouthed due to their brutality.

Do It With A Smile was released via the New York label Exploding In Sound Records on tape and vinyl . The record was completely sold out right at the release date on March 5th and there are not many of the cassettes left either, which should clearly speak for the quality of Thirdface as well.

With this album you finally get to deal with a Hardcore record that not only uses the usual genre elements, but also induces a fresh sound that tries out new things in a really creative way. Accordingly, fans of dull Toughguy stuff will probably not be able to do quite so much with Thirdface, but those who like innovative mosh sound will have a lot of fun with Do It With A Smile and will be able to enjoy this long player for several times because of the many different influences and the great songwriting. A really strong debut – and I am very curious how excessively it will ignite live as soon as the opportunity comes again.

Favourite Tracks:
“Grasping At The Root”
“No Hope”

8/10

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