Thrice's 6th and 7th albums, fully released back in 2008, formed their eagerly awaited Alchemy Index – an ambitious project which saw the band compose a set of six songs for each of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air.
Fire and Water, the first half, is a contrasting combination – sticking to the Thrice’s heavy, hardcore roots in Fire, and then departing into the ambient, swelling tones of Water.
Fire, although the weakest, least subtle of their elements, is still powerful. Thrice are raw and unpolished here – their guitars overdriven, Kensrue vocals roaring and raging overhead. Most of the album is stunningly distorted and the guitar and drums are driving forces that break down all barriers to the emotion in Dustin’s voice. The atmosphere is maintained dramatically – gang vocals, chanting and repetition all adding to the urgency and anger of it all. The Flame Deluge is a brilliant closing – all static and distortion whilst the lyrics are left unfathomable. The drumming is absolutely epic and the emotion is uncurbed and scathing – you burn with anger and are sated by the gentle finale. Firebreather is a juggernaut of an opener, the guitar pounding, Kensrue demanding:
"Tell me are you free?
In word or thought or deed?"
Water recalls Vheissu’s Atlantic and For Miles, with swelling, synthesised tones – making use of Teppei’s talent on the keyboard. It is this bleak contrast with Fire that makes the combination work so well. The single, Digital Sea, is a marvellous, pulsating joy for the ears. The synth backing, jerking drumming and scarred melody come together so perfectly. The use of a walkie talkie to distort the vocals is also inspired. It’s rivalled only by Song for Milly. Night Diving has to be mentioned. A heavier instrumental that is crafted magnificently to keep in with its element, it explores a totally different side of Water - one less melancholy, less dampened and less restrained.
Air and Earth, their most recent offering has seen them depart from their past style. They leave the more conventional sounds of Vheissu and The Artist and the Ambulance to venture into a more mature, more versatile style.
Earth is a folksy, stripped down selection - the drums carving out simple patterns and the guitars humming below Dustin’s voice as it breaks with emotion. The lyrics, often Biblical, seem capture the essence of the Earth – whether in the cry of: “Come all you weary/ Come gather round near me” or in the childish, yet disturbing Lion and the Wolf: “And both the wolf and lion crave the same thing in the end”. The highlight of these six songs comes from Moving Mountains – the lament of a man of faith who doesn’t “know the first thing about love”. Lion and the Wolf is a twisted nursery-rhyme styled story told by the band in a way to disturb anyone who listens carefully. The piano circles around you, the lyrics paint a gruesome picture and the vocals mock.
Air, befittingly, is lighter and subtler than Earth – superior also. Dustin’s vocals soar free over the soft patter of the drumming and the gentle picking of the guitar. The lyrics jump from the political in Broken Lungs (Are we fools and cowards all/ To let them cover up their lies?) to the mythological in Daedalus (But I’ve got a plan with some wax and some string/ Feathers I stole from the birds) – and they pull it off well. Song for Milly Michaelson is probably the best song in the whole Index - Kensrue’s voice lilting over the slow, pulsing, trickling guitar. The lyrics are so purely, beautifully innocent: “I love the night/ Flying over these city lights/ But I love you most of all”. Daedalus’ crescendo is thundering and dripping with emotion – anger and sorrow pervading the band’s sound.
The Alchemy Index contains some of their best songs to date, but I’m not so sure that it matches the consistent genius found in Vheissu. If you’re a fan of heavier stuff go for Vheissu, but if, like me, you prefer something a bit mellower, then the Alchemy Index is a great album to get your hands on.
Top Songs: A Song for Milly Michaelson, Daedalus, Moving Mountains, Digital Sea, The Whaler, Firebreather, Come All You Weary
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