A Static Lullaby

Thursday really fucked everything up when it released 2001’s Full Collapse. It wasn’t the first — or, some would argue, the best — album of its kind, but it did create a cookie-cutter formula that nearly every post-whatevercore band has copied. But whereas most of these acts scramble to sound indistinguishable, the members of A Static Lullaby have become the genre’s technicians. Tighter guitars, faster breakbeats, louder screaming and — God help us all — even more off-key vocals come together to create a sound that certainly isn’t original but at least takes some hard work to create. Even after all the chemicals have been ro-manced and the Sundays, um, taken back, A Static Lullaby proves that it is, in fact, possible to get blood from a stone — if you’re willing to squeeze a little bit harder.