Review: Thieves By The Code ‘Ava’s Revenge’

I caught Thieves By The Code at Icebreaker Festival last year. They’re a great little group, loud and sassy and worth a mention in last year’s Icebreaker review. We’ve stayed in touch since and they kindly sent me their new album, Ava’s Revenge to listen to. Seeing as Icebreaker was last weekend hopefully there might be a few of you who were fortunate to have heard some of these new tracks live?

The new album is called Ava’s Revenge and is due for release imminently, single The Touch was released on 27^th Jan and has a video on you tube you can watch here, https://youtu.be/FYMUuRQnfIk

Arabelle Decibel is a strong opening with that loveable QOTSA element throbbing from the start. The album takes a psychedelic turn with The Touch, a song that I’ve grown rather fond of and has been recently released as the first single from the album. It’s sci-fi dreamscape, with glistening electrical tones that coat the ears with an odd sort of sweetness. There’s a slow, funeral organ march into Crimson Tears, where it breaks back into that synthesiser delight, with a pacing of garage fun times. The clean, heavy sound breaks in again for Supernatural, which is one of the catchiest songs on the album. This is not a hollow statement, every listen leaves a residual echo in my head for days.

Eerie panic swing Seventh Sons bursts forth with a wholesome energy then the pendulum swings back and Ombra sees us falling again into the dreamscape with a beautiful piece of music, lulling us in before blasting us back out with It’s Already Dead, which is one of my favourite tracks. It’s assault by vocals “You destroy everything”, militancy dissipating into a victorious ending. Ava’s Revenge is as far as title tracks go, a big track. It’s simple to start with an underpinned brooding feeling, exploding into meaty riffs and chanted backing vocals. Tokio Nights is worth mentioning for its fun bridge, Medellin the final fuzz driven attack and finally, Penombra, which with its hushed strings and final lullaby vibes, is a gorgeous track to finish on.

Thieves By The Code's 'Ava's Revenge' album cover

Listening to this album is like being in a dream, a state of flux where up is down and in is out. The twists and turns in these directions and the capacity to lull whilst they lacerate is impressive and has left a lasting impression. Additionally, it’s good to hear the advance they’ve made since Tales From The Green Muse…And Beyond, released in 2014.

They’re really finding they’re stride in sound, dancing and blending rock and psychedelic synth, slipping into pools of garage energy and as before, a decent measure of ethereal lucidity. It’s all quite beautiful, really.

They’ve got a number of dates coming up around the country, for more info on them check out their Bandcamp page thievesbythecode.bandcamp.com.