AWmusic

Post hardcore pioneers Thrice are back with their first LP since 2005’s Vheissu, a disc that bent and warped the sound that had catapulted them to the top of their genre with discs like 2002’s The Illusion of Safety and 2003’s Artist In The Ambulance.

While Vheissu still contained the hardcore elements that Thrice was known for, it also hinted at a band looked to break away from their earlier style and embrace new sounds and a new artistic direction.

That direction led to 2007 and 2008’sThe Alchemy Index, a four EP collection that found the band dabbling in many different styles each representing one of the four elements.

Now returning a year later with their first full length in four year Thrice have crafted an album that feels as much like a jumping off point as it does a stand alone. Settling into a sound that mixes some of the more experimental elements from Vheissu with the sounds found on Alchemy’s Air and Water Discs, Thrice have put together a collection of songs that are both familiar and edgy, experimental and comfortable.

The disc opens with All The World Is Mad, and it’s chugging bass line welcomes you to an altered sound that builds on itself until it emerges as one hell of a rock song. Vocalist Dustin Kensrue’s rasp is as solid as ever and helps to set the mood for both the song and the disc as he sings:

“Something’s Gone Terribly wrong, with everyone/All the world is mad/Darkness brings terrible things; the sun is gone/What vanity! our sad, wretched fires.”

In the background guitarist Teppei Teranishi, provides the intricate base for what Thrice has always been, with technical and complex riffs that help to drive the song along and continue the mood that Kensrue already created.

Circles expands on the promises Thrice made with songs like Digital Sea from Water and from Air. At once deep and haunting, Drummer Riley Breckenridge finds a groove, and drives the song forward naturally, and Teppei’s guitar solo in the middle is classic Thrice, without the speed that Thrice had once been known for.

In Exile is the essence of the groove that Thrice promised to find on this album as it starts out simply with a slow beat and is organically joined by guitars as it builds itself. By the time Kensrue croons, “I am in exile, a sojourner/A citizen of some other place.” You already have a sense for what the song is.

By the time the chorus rolls around, you know that In Exile is something special, and Kensrue backs it up with the line, My heart is filled with songs of forever/The city that endures when all is made new/I know I don’t belong here, I’ll never/Call this place my home, I’m just passing through.”

As Exile works it’s way to the end, classic Thrice makes an appearance in atmospheric form as the tempo picks up and Teppei lets loose.

Thrice has found ways throughout their career to harken back to their own work and offer newer perspectives on similar themes. They turned one of Artists best most energetic songs, The Melting Point Of Wax, on it’s head with Air’s Daedalus. Both songs tell the story of Icarus, with melting point being from the youthful view of Icarus himself, while Daedalus is a more haunting version of the story told from the point of view of Icarus’s father who has to watch as his plan to give his son freedom leads to his downfall.

On Beggars Thrice take another look at themes of imprisonment on Wood & Wire, a topic touch on in Vheissu’s The Earth Will Shake, while The Great Exchange delves again into what could possibly be Thrice’s favorite topic, life at sea, which has been touched on, not just with the Water disc, The Whaler but also on Fire, Burn The Fleet, and Vheissu’s incredible Red Sky.

The album closes out with the title track, Beggars. A slow, atmospheric song that features a heart beat base drum, and an introspective Kensrue singing softly. The complex simplicity of the song feels like jazz without really sounding like it. The indictment of the supposed superiority of the rich, the smart and the powerful moves slowly until the breakdown that closes the album with whaling guitars, and the powerful sound that made Thrice God’s among post-hardcore men.

With Beggars it is obvious why Thrice have achieved the level they have with in the scene, the genre and the industry. Unlike so many bands, Thrice yearns for change and growth instead of fearing it. You can tell that if they had tried to create the Illusion of Safety over and over again, they would have failed and broken up years ago. Instead they continuously teeter out onto limb after limb, following their art instead of trying to pad their wallets. Beggars is another step in Thrice’s evolution and ascension, and as with all Thrice albums it not only gives you something amazing to grab hold of and absorb, but it also gives you something to look forward to.

With every Thrice album, you realize that music is not static, it is not stagnant. It is always, changing, growing and building itself into something else, something better. Amen.

Thrice – All The World Is Mad
Thrice – Circles
Thrice – In Exile

Tags: album