REVIEW: Trigger Thumb - PMP-EP

After five years of quiet, TRIGGER THUMB don’t so much return as rupture the silence. PMP-EP is the sound of a Bradford three-piece refusing to re-enter the room politely; instead, they kick the door off its hinges with a wave of sound triumphantly announcing their return to the scene with a jolt of pent‑up invention, sounding like a group who’ve been stockpiling ideas and are now firing them off in rapid succession. It’s a chaotic, tightly packaged burst of rock that keeps you slightly off balance in the best way, and is unhinged without losing its musicality. Five years away can dull the edges of a lesser group, but the five-track PMP-EP lands like a band reclaiming its pulse. The trio sounds focused, hungry, and more deliberate than ever. There’s no sense of having to warm up after their hiatus; the energy is immediate, almost impatient, as if the songs have been coiled for years just waiting to be released.

Mean It opens the EP like a controlled explosion - a frantic collision of blast beats, snarling hooks, and vocals so manic they sound seconds away from tripping over themselves in their urgency to announce that TRIGGER THUMB have zero interest in easing anyone back in. It’s a mission statement and a tug‑of‑war between plea and demand, insisting we “watch right to the end” - as if we could resist! It’s music that demands attention but never feels stiff; the band’s instinct for propulsion keeps everything moving with purpose. The track’s fantastically hooky chaos sets the tone for everything that follows, establishing a project that thrives on tension - emotional, rhythmic, and structural - and proving within seconds that the band’s return is anything but tentative. Textures stack in ways that feel both restless and meticulously engineered.

What defines the EP more than any single riff or vocal moment is its sense of motion. TRIGGER THUMB write songs that behave like living organisms, constantly shifting shape, mutating just when you think you’ve found your footing. Yet the chaos is never sloppy. Each detour is carefully considered, rooted in the group’s deep understanding of structure and flow. Banana captures their experimental streak at its best - a groove-led, eccentric track that flirts with excess but ultimately pulls it off. It’s both infectious and faintly threatening. Opening with a flurry of Punjabi and vocal ad-libs, it’s difficult to sit still when this bouncy track kicks in. The chorus - “Look what we’ve started [...] we’re just getting started” - feels like a rallying cry, and a sly nod to the band’s own return. That’s not even touching on the pure, joyful nonsense woven into the rest of the track: tic‑tac‑toe, bangles, smashed cameras, and grammar jokes delivered with the confidence of someone who knows they’re being ridiculous and is having the time of their life doing it. It’s the kind of track that has a listener grinning at the sheer bravado while quietly admiring how precisely it’s put together.

Pain Means Progress closes the EP somewhere between chaos and release. Where the earlier tracks twist themselves into knots of groove and absurdity, the finale features jazzy bass, off‑kilter guitar stabs, and a vocal delivery that feels equal parts playful and exhausted, the smile barely hiding the sting. It’s a song that refuses to settle, shifting from swaggering looseness to emotional gut‑punch as it delivers the EP’s thesis with a grin and a wince. The band manages to turn a hard‑earned truth into something triumphant. Where the earlier songs weaponise tension, Pain Means Progress sits inside it, studies it, and alchemises it into something introspective, turning the title not into a slogan, but a hard‑earned revelation. It’s a bold, emotionally complex closer that reframes the EP not just as a burst of pent‑up energy, but as a document of growth, grit, and the strange humour that gets you through it.

Across the EP, TRIGGER THUMB lean into a fun, mischievous approach to music. There are moments that flirt with nu‑metal attitude, others that nod toward math‑rock’s angularity, and still others that feel like the band are daring each other to see how strange they can get while keeping the listener hooked. Addictive hooks lock in just long enough to lure you before mutating into something stranger. Tongue‑in‑cheek lyrics slip between accessibility and absurdity, and the vocals stretch into a surprising number of shapes, barked, autotuned, falsetto, sometimes all within the same track. TRIGGER THUMB’s unpredictability and playful weirdness is their key strength, and it makes for an EP full of sharp personality and versatility. In just 20 minutes, they remind you exactly why they’ve always deserved more attention - and why this new chapter could be their most exciting yet.

PMP‑EP doesn’t read as a comeback record. It reads as a leveling‑up. TRIGGER THUMB is a band hitting a stride and embracing the full spectrum of their instincts, from the heavy to the humorous, and showcasing some technical brilliance along the way. If this EP is a reintroduction, it’s a powerful one. If you’re looking for both cerebral precision and gut-level force with a healthy helping of absurdity, this is your sign to get TRIGGER THUMB on your radar, stat.

Score: 8/10

PMP‑EP will be self released on 9th February 2026.

Words: Cara Hyndman

Photos: Trigger Thumb