Kite Thief – Ambiviolent | EP Review

Djent riffs? Check. Bleep bloops? Check. Anthemic choruses? Check. But is it more than the sum of its parts?

Pulling together diverse influences into a new sound is hardly a novel idea. Peruse any band bio from the last few years and you’ll find that mentioned almost verbatim, along with plenty of mentions of catharsis and ecstasy cropping up time and time again. Kite Thief aren’t really doing anything new by fusing techy riffs with flourishes of synth. The songs follow a tried and true roadmap, moving from stop-start riffage to smooth rolling choruses with sickeningly catchy hooks inciting the listener to sing along. The mix is that gloriously sterile and inoffensive Architects-lite preset, the harmonies are straight from the pop-metal playbook, the little glitches and stops come exactly when we expect them to. Even the title nails that sort-of-clever-until-you-think-about-it smarm that’s swept through music in the last decade. Yet despite its seeming off-the-shelf nature, Ambiviolent is great.

Ambiviolent opens with The Tide, which feels like a safe bet. The riffs bounce and chug where they need to, the vocals are equally spat and crooned, and the electronics make the whole thing sound incredibly slick and considered. The chorus lilts where it should explode, but the song gets where it needs to by the end, finishing with a triumphant punch. The highlight of the EP is a brief refrain in second track ‘Goldsick‘;  Hope you get stuck in traffic on your way to work / Hope there’s a rock in every sock you put on your foot / Hope there’s a hole in all your pockets so you lose all your change / And most of all I hope your ego’s fucking laid to waste”.

This little injection of tongue-in-cheek reminds us that as slick as the music is, there’s a spark of humanity driving it all, and the vocal delivery is incredible. Backed up with scuzzy industrial beats and some filthy riffs, this is where Kite Thief start to stamp their authority on the EP. The EP closes with title track ‘Ambiviolent’ which almost makes the rest of the tracks obsolete – it’s by far the most accomplished song here and hits all of the Kite Thief signature moves in the best possible way. The dynamic and rhythmic shifts sound more natural, the vocals and instrumentation twist around each other deliciously and it’s by far the most original sounding piece of music on offer here. Ambiviolent feels like listening to a band finding their feet over the course of 5 tracks. From humble, uncertain beginnings through left-field explorations into an accomplished finale, we’re left eagerly awaiting the next step forward from an extremely promising band.