THRICE - "The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV - Air & Earth" - Biography 2008

 

To take stock of Thrice’s discography is to witness the dramatic evolution of a band perpetually committed to pushing their own creative boundaries, taking their music to new and breathtaking heights of expression and challenging fans to explore each startling soundscape the group conjures, while simultaneously promoting social awareness and change. From the raw power and technical onslaught of early records Identity Crisis and The Illusion of Safety, to the perfect marriage of fury and melody on The Artist In The Ambulance, to the bold, mesmerizing experimentation of Vheissu, Thrice has always been a band on the cutting edge, running well ahead of their peers. That divide continues to widen still further.

 

The California-based quartet, who’ve also been busy of late making high-profile main stage appearances at the Coachella, Reading & Leeds and Bamboozle festivals, have followed the New Pantheon Award-nominated Vheissu’s radical metamorphosis with The Alchemy Index, a two-volume collection comprised of four EPs, each devoted to one of the essential elements in nature—fire, water, air and earth—with each EP sonically and thematically tailored to evoke the atmosphere inherent in its corresponding element. This past fall marked the release of the first two volumes of the series - Fire and Water - and now Earth and Air are scheduled for an April debut, completing the tremendous vision and scope of the project. For Thrice, it’s the realization of a year-long process of writing and recording, which was done primarily in the band’s own studio and engineered by guitarist Teppei Teranishi, without the assistance of an outside producer.

 

We’re kind of doing something that’s the opposite of what a producer is supposed to do on a record - which is make everything make sense and kind of fit together - whereas this project is all about taking things apart and pushing them one way,” says Teranishi. “We really wanted to try doing things our way this time around, and make this record sound the way we want it to sound, not the way it’s supposed to sound.”

 

Dustin [Kensrue] came up with the idea of using the elements, and separating all of the feels that we normally come up with,” adds bassist Eddie Breckenridge. “That was scary at first, because part of what our sound is, is that combination and the experiment of mixing different feels, but this is actually helping us push each feel in a further direction.”

 

The second installment of The Alchemy Index opens with Volume III: Air, which as its title would suggest, is the most ethereal of the EPs, not just in its spacious palette of tones and textures, but also in its indefinable qualities. Turbulent lead track “Broken Lungs,” offers a stormy indictment of those who’ve led the public astray concerning the truths behind 9/11; based on the film The Boy Who Could Fly, “ A Song For Milly Michaelson” presents an open letter of innocent love; and tapping into an underlying theme of fatherhood present at multiple points throughout the four EPs, the equally bluesy and orchestral “Daedalus” revisits the Icarus myth Thrice previously explored on Artist In The Ambulance’s “The Melting Point Of Wax,” this time considering the viewpoint of Icarus’ fearful father, who cares only for the safety of his doomed son.

 

I think there’s a lot to be seen in any story - there’s different sides and multiple viewpoints. Before I’d kind of taken it as Icarus finding this glory at the cost of his life, but it was something that he had to do,” Kensrue explains. “You [also] see a father trying to take care of his son and have the best for him, and watching kind of helplessly as [Icarus] spirals toward disaster. I think that’s also a valid view. And maybe, me becoming a father, I can see a little more of that story now….I think our lives move in stories too, so we relate to that.”

 

The Earth EP may be the furthest removed from any prior conceptions of the Thrice sound - filled with rich, warm acoustic arrangements and the organic feel of a live setting, it recalls the traditional, roots flavor of Kensrue’s 2007 solo recording Please Come Home, yet with darker, more somber overtones, and gravity perfectly suited to the project’s overall themes. Earth is the sound of a band reinventing itself within the context of an even broader overall evolution, whether it be evidenced on the moody, mournful “Come All You Weary,” or the hypnotic cover of “The Earth Isn’t Humming,” (a stripped-down reworking of the original by Frodus), or “Digging My Own Grave,” which showcases the latest incarnation of Thrice at their most soulful.

 

[Grave] is pretty unexpected, I think,” says Kensrue. “I like that we’re able to push boundaries with this project and go to places that you wouldn’t really be able to go on a Thrice record, or any rock band’s record really. I think that’s a good example of going really far out of our box, whatever that might be.”

 

Thrice fans will likely find the thundering strains of Fire to be the most familiar of the four EPs, with the kind of blistering riffs and captivating melodies the band has built a career upon. From the opening bombast of “Firebreather” to the towering, unforgettable "Burn the Fleet," with its Elliot Smith meets Isis vibe, Fire exhibits a Thrice who still know how to punish with decibels, and with greater force and impact than ever before.

 

I’m really stoked on how [“Burn The Fleet”] came out,” says drummer Riley Breckenridge, who also resides in the house that holds the band’s studio. “It’s really melancholy, yet crushing.”

 

Water, on the other hand, offers some of the most subdued textures the band have explored to date, and makes extensive use of a palette of electronic sounds, particularly for rhythms and synthesized effects. Haunting and beautiful, Water is an aural aquatic voyage as serene as it is somber, with the shimmering bliss of “Open Water” naturally coexisting with the dark, moody “The Whaler” and the groundbreaking and evocative instrumental track, “Night Diving.”

 

For [“Night Diving”], we ended up making this whole plot outline of what’s happening in the song, even though there are no lyrics. That was how we decided on the different movements - when they’d come up, and when they’d come down,” Kensrue says. “It’s the story of this guy diving at night, and the things that he encounters. That was a pretty interesting way to write a song; we definitely had never done anything like that before.”

 

Kensrue also took the elemental theme to an entirely different level by composing an original sonnet for each EP, set to music, yet organized in the traditional English structure and rhythmic fashion. These passages (“Silver Wings” on Air; “Child of Dust” on Earth; “The Flame Deluge” on Fire; and “Kings Upon The Main” for Water) offer powerful sentiments that serve as thought-provoking closers for each EP’s respective journey.

 

Each sonnet is written from the point of view of the personified element, writing to man. They’re a lament, almost,” Kensrue explains. “The Fire one kind of deals with fire being resentful of the way that it’s been used in destruction and war. The Water one is kind of dealing with man’s pride, and kind of the uselessness of that pride in the face of the power of the ocean.”

 

Kensrue continues, “‘Child of Dust’ concerns abuses of our environment; this image of raping the earth to wreak havoc on other humans, and the idea of ‘from dust to dust’ and how the earth takes us back to sleep. "Silver Wings" is talking about the things that we see; how we tend to be pessimists. Using the wind as an example, we see the destructive power of things, but not all the ways we reap these blessings. It’s kind of a metaphor for God, as well. We try to blame everything on God, and not give him credit for all the amazing things that we are blessed with.”

 

Now, with the Earth and Air installments of the series emerging this spring, after listeners have had a chance to fully absorb the first half of the Alchemy Index’s massive, multi-layered complexity, the full scope and grandeur of The Alchemy Index can be fully appreciated in its entirety. A milestone offering from a band with so much still left to explore, the success of this seemingly daunting effort hints at the potential for even more challenging, yet wholly unpredictable, creations in the future.

 

From here, we can kind of go anywhere,” Kensrue adds. “I don’t think anyone really knows what will be next.”

 

For Thrice and their fans, that uncharted future might seem an ocean away, but with the release of second and final installment of The Alchemy Index, here is where the next dramatic stage of this unprecedented voyage begins.