Thrice-Alchemy Index Vols. I and II (2007)-David Whitesell
Thrice: The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II (2007)
By David Whitesell
The California experimental rock quartet known as Thrice began their career in 1998 by tearing up Irvinve, California and any other city that four high school kids could afford to drive to. Thrice started their career with melodic hardcore driven albums (Identity Crisis and The Illusion of Safety) and have since evolved in to a more mature melodic rock sound, best exemplified in their 2005 release of Vheissu, and even more so in their latest release, The Alchemy Index. This band has done nothing but grow over the past nine years, and while my taste in music has greatly changed over that time, there apparently still exists a note inside of me that Thrice manages to grab hold of with each release.
The Alchemy Index is a concept album of sorts that will be divided in to four volumes, each volume representing one of the four basic elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air. It was announced in September of 2007 that the four discs would be released in two installments, Fire and Water coming out in fall of 2007 and Earth and Air coming out in spring of 2008. Each disc has six tracks, the sixth track on each disk being a sonnet, written by Dustin Kensrue (Lead singer and rhythm guitar) that fully embodies their concept of that element.
I can still recall reading the updates on the band’s Myspace page in September of 2006 and stumbling upon this news, it seemed like one of the most interesting ideas for an album that I had ever heard of, which ultimately gave room for possible disappointments. However, after listening through the Fire and Water discs for the past full week, it has become apparent to me that when Thrice has an idea for an album that I should go along with it, for these two discs beautifully exemplify the emotions that one gathers when thinking of Fire and Water.
Fire disc opens with “Firebreather”, a very powerful song whose melody is somewhat reminiscent to that of Hold Fast Hope, which was on Thrice’s Vheissu release. The rest of the disc follows from there and continues to remind me more of Vheissu than anything else, though not an exact copy by any means. “The Messenger” and “Backdraft” both open with synthy melodies lead by drums, and I wouldn’t be the least surprised if those ideas stemmed from Teppei Teranishi (Lead guitarist) for he always the one who wanted to experiment with as many sounds as possible.
Overall, if you have heard Vheissu before, than you won’t find anything too new in this disc, save the track, “Burn the Fleet”. While most of the disc seems to tell of the power that fire possesses, this track approaches the deadly element with more of a reverence than anything else. “But the fire continues to rise, and it shows not a hint of any fear in our eyes,” Dustin chants over the twangy melodies that make up this track. Without this track, the Fire disc would have been fairly bland.
Water disc opens with an electronic track entitled, “Digital Sea”, and if you haven’t heard the song before then just think of the title because the name fits the sound of the song perfectly. The second track, “Open Water”, follows right along with “Digital Sea”, making sure that there is no dearth of synthy beats in this disc. Just as “Burn the Fleet” approached the fire element with reverence, so does the song “Lost Continent”, on the Water disc. “It’s always been a lie, a soothing lullaby; we’ll soon be swallowed by the sea,” Dustin cries just as the song picks up and turns into the most beautiful track on the record.
The remainder of the disc continues where Open Water left off and keeps the synthy beats flowing. “Night Diver” goes from really beat oriented melodies to hard driven melodies that sound a bit like some of the songs on the Fire disc, showcasing the dual perception that is commonly associated with Water. While the Water disc does hold on to one main sound over the entire disc, it allows the disc to have a feeling of completeness that is generally hard to come by in many modern albums.
Overall, if one were to ignore the facts that the Fire disc is a bit too much like Vheissu, and that the Water tracks could use jut a bit more variation, then he would think that he had come across a true gem. However, I can’t ignore these facts, and if I believed in ratings, I would give this album a 3.5/5.
Copyright C 2007 David Whitesell