Release Date: December 9, 2022
Genre: Post-Hardcore
Label: Pale Chord Music / Rise Records
Thousand Below, a post-hardcore band based out of Los Angeles, California, will release their anticipated third studio record, Hell Finds You Everywhere, under Pale Chord Music and Rise Records, on December 9, 2022. After a solid release with their last record, Gone In Your Wake (2019), on streaming platforms, fans were ecstatic to finally get a release of the anticipated third record after three years. Thousand Below is starting to get more in the mainstream market as they are touring with Bad Omens, Dayseeker, and Make Them Suffer on The Concrete Jungle Tour right now. I would have to say there are some benefits and some drawbacks to this record compared to the last two when it comes to mixing for a few tracks.
The album starts with an intense guitar orchestra on the album's title track, "Hell Finds You Everywhere," featuring the lead singer of Bad Omens, Noah Sebastian. It goes off on intense build-up with guitars and crazy raspy vocals known from the lead singer James. With the start of the intro to the song, it kind of gives me a sense of the new The Word Alive track, "Nocturnal Future," but with the sense of arena vibes. It transitions in the middle into something that the band Starset does called "transmissions," like a little talking part. But this part of the song didn't feel rightly mastered or cleaned up well as other bands have done in past that they were getting inspiration from. It goes into a hard electronic and hard guitar breakdown in the back half, with Noah coming in near the end with his vocals not shining enough over the guitars and instrumental. I'm hearing it coming in more than his vocals. As what I can hear from Noah's vocals is the high registry vocals that he's known for. I kind of wish the mix for this whole song was better and that Noah's feature was a little longer. Would have been a very strong title track.
When I first heard "Venenosa," was when it first came out. I wasn't much of a fan of it from the lyrical standpoint of the track. But after listening to it over and over since the announcement and build-up of this record, it really has grown on me. It shows more of this new sound that the band is starting to get known for. With James' crazy hard, deep, and raspy vocals in the middle and breakdown. This song shows that the band is up for so much experimentation when it comes to the music and the vocals. "Face to Face" is another great track I loved out of the singles, with such a catchy chorus and very nice and riffy guitars. With a middle part switching into a hip-hop verse that goes back those hard vocals into the catchy chorus. What a great track! When I first heard "Sabotage," I loved it, and I still do! This song reminds me of the song off their last record titled "Chemicals." It kind of gives me that catchy chorus and more mature vocals from James with that chorus than "Chemicals" did. It goes in this huge vocal range than James is known for and with softer backing vocals from the rest of the band. The song has been on repeat since hearing the announcement about this record, and I hope to hear it in a live setting one day.
"Clockwork Enemy" starts off strong with James going into his deeper vocal range, then has the band backing up with him doing "typical shouting" you hear on rock songs, but doing this on a post-hardcore track is new, and to me, delightful hearing. The chorus goes pretty large, but I'm a bass guy. I wish I heard more from it, but it's a very enjoyable one that I'm bopping my head writing this piece about it. Some lyrics that stood out to me right after the chorus as it's the part of the song title is "Feel the clockwork hitting me now." It really gets you the feels with the vocals from James from that part, and it just brings the eerie vibes it entails. I'm asking myself even with the ending lyrics. I'm wondering about "times going to break me down" on what this song entails. I love this song a lot and know this will be one I'll be repeating a lot. The next track on the album is "Next Time Around," featuring Matt Flood from the band Caskets. It starts off with this beautiful softer tone style that the band is known for. In the middle instrumental background, I hear some kind of electronic pad that gives me the same instrumental tone that I get from Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight," which I heard as a kid that gave me cool chills. The chorus is big but very clean, with Matt coming in the back half of the song and with a great mix shining from his clean vocals and James balancing it out with the final chorus. What a beautiful song!
"Silent Season" starts off with what sounds like a kid kind of vocals. Something that you get from an NF track that later goes into a rock instrumental. The song starts off so strong with the verse with a catchy chorus that feels like it's summer again -and doesn't feel repetitive. This song has everything in it that you hear with the new sound from Thousand Below -with the raspiness you hear from James and the boom of the bass. The second time with the kid vocals kind of caught me off guard by hearing the in-between parts of the vocals growling right into the next lyric. That doesn't sit well with me. It could have totally been cleaned up with better mixing for that part. Other than that little part, the song is a strong and catchy song. Next is "Shade," and it starts off right away. I don't have much that's revolutionary to say about the track other than I very much enjoy the little bit of guitar high parts in the song -at the start of the chorus. The song feels like a typical Thousand Below song and is an average album track.
"Blue Roses Don't Fade" starts off giving off Stranger Things intro vibes with the electronics. It reminded me, and I still wonder why they didn't put the single they released last year, "Gone To Me," on this record, as this track kind of has a similar tone right off the bat. It's totally different tone than anything on the record. It feels like more of a solo track for James than it is for a Thousand Below song. It has very catchy verses that I enjoy and can bop my head. With the ending featuring vocals from CVLTE -felt very off for the track- that I feel like it didn't fit the track. James' vocals shined perfectly, that it didn't need that feature. The final track is "All I Have Left To Give" and it feels dark and a strong ending track for the record. It gives the same kind of atmospheric tone as the new Dayseeker record gives. With a slow build-up to that very large chorus where it goes hard and strong for that middle portion. Then near the end, we have a very soft tone vocal from James and pick right back up to get in that chorus. It was a nice soft ender for the record.
Thousand Below wrote some catchy songs for Hell Finds You Everywhere. They went a more experimental route for this record with some new sounds, and I give credit to the band to go down this route after three records. I hope they do find some better mixing for the next record as they get more noticed in this industry as well. I can't wait to see these songs possibly perform some of these tracks at a Live show one day. Nonetheless, Thousand Below has another solid release!
Check out more from Thousand Below: