The wait is over, and today an astonishing new era for Melbourne’s Thornhill has arrived via their brand new studio album BODIES, out now via UNFD. A dauntless pastiche of creative freedom and ingenuity, BODIES finds Thornhill in full flight, with its 11 tracks layered with authenticity and electrifying execution, cementing the group’s status yet again as one of Australia’s most engaging heavy acts.
Opening with percolating bounce via DIESEL, BODIES thrives with caustic urgency (Revolver), swooning melodics soaked in oscillating chaos and clarity (Silver Swarm), serene reprieves (fall into the wind), grinding swagger (TONGUES) and mellow R&B flavours (CRUSH), offering an expansive and kaleidoscopic palette that circles upbeat buoyancy and crushing heaviness; a snapshot of Thornhill in their most assured form to date.
Coinciding with the release today of BODIES, Thornhill have also shared a visualizer for the album’s haunting penultimate track under the knife.
“I wanted to convey an underlying fear of being unnoticed or forgotten,” the band shares of under the knife, “the notion of a silhouette falling between fingers conveys a message of fleeting moments—something that can be grasped but never fully held. Within the atmosphere of the instrumentation, a haunting exploration of love and lust, blends these two feelings into something more tragic, yet hopefully relatable. There’s a delicate balance between submission (“underneath your knife”) and resistance (“I don’t wanna know yet”), which creates a soft tension, a push/pull that moves with song dynamics.”
“BODIES marks a bold evolution in our ever-developing sound,” shares Thornhill of their latest opus. “Heroine was defined by its meticulously crafted and tightly woven concept, but the weight of this careful construction sometimes overshadowed the energy of the music itself, leaving some listeners feeling disconnected. With BODIES, we have embraced a more immediate, unfiltered approach that feels like a lightning bolt, looking to capture the energy of “Thornhill right now.”
“The album thrives on spontaneity and freedom, foregoing rigid concepts in favor of pure, in-your-face authenticity. It’s less about delivering a carefully constructed narrative and more about creating a visceral, open-ended experience. BODIES serves as a sonic moodboard—a collection of feelings and vibes—intentionally left open to interpretation. It has an upbeat and almost celebratory, party energy at times, but also retains all the emotion and intensity Thornhill are known for, making it our heaviest and most explosive work to date.”
“With BODIES, we invite listeners to connect on their own terms. It’s raw, personal, and unapologetically immediate—a record that thrives in the moment, capturing our band at our most authentic and free.”
Globally renowned for their artful and engaging heavy creations, Thornhill possess a flair for gripping charm forged with unforgettable ferocity. Via their ARIA Award-nominated 2022 album Heroine, Thornhill cemented their reputation as one of the most innovative heavy acts in the Australian scene, with Heroine debuting at #3 on the ARIA Albums charts, and at #1 on the Australian Albums charts.
While Heroine revelled in lush textures and bold, curated aesthetics, the upcoming third studio album BODIES finds Thornhill opening the floodgates to spontaneity. Balancing intensity with boundless creative freedom and ingenuity, album #3 for Thornhill is not only a definitive snapshot of a band in full flight just shy of a decade into their staggering career; it’s also a celebration of authenticity and gripping dynamism from one of Australia’s most engaging heavy acts.
Thornhill have amassed a heaving array of accolades over the years, including triple j’s Feature Album and additions to countless Best Of The Year listings for their 2019 release The Dark Pool. And in 2023 and 2024, the band gifted some insatiable new material courtesy of standalone singles Viper Room and Obsession, as well as a live album, Live On Tour!, boasting performances captured in the wild across the globe that released in June.
Earlier this year, Thornhill supported A Day To Remember for the legendary Florida group’s only Knotfest Australia headline sideshow, and also performed three special intimate album preview shows for Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney late last month, with all three shows entirely sold out.
Looking ahead, Thornhill are set to return to North America for a headline run, kicking off next week supported by Avoid, Ocean Grove and Banks Arcade, and will also perform at Louder Than Life in Kentucky this September, and Aftershock in California in October.
BODIES – OUT NOW
https://thornhill.komi.io/
