Band Overview: Thrice

[MetalMusicMan]

Thrice has always been one of my favorite bands, and I've finally gotten around to writing an overview for them-- now if I could just get to all of the OTHER bands that I think deserve a full article!  Anyway, Thrice have done some interesting genre changing as of late, going from thrash-punk to hardcore-punk to indie to indie-er to indie-er-er.  Well, that doesn't sound all that progressive, but I suppose you'll just have to hear the difference.  It will all make sense later, so come with me on a journey...

Band Overview: Thrice

The Illusion of Safety was the first major release for Thrice, and while it isn't without merit, I find it to be a bit too fast for its own good.  Speed/Thrash Punk is kind of like Speed/Thrash Metal.  It's generally too concerned with being as fast as possible to have much substance.  The material is there, but it's very hard to find.  If you look hard enough, there are some good things, though.  My favorite song off this CD is "To Awake and Avenge the Dead", and it will do nicely to kick-start this overview.  It's a turner-upper.

Band Overview: Thrice

Download Thrice's "To Awake and Avenge the Dead" off of "The Illusion of Safety".

old friend they told me you were dead
the news broadcast the funeral
500 channels focus in
your love was
ravished drawn and quartered,
the soil was swift to drink your blood.
this violence in the name of love!

The Artist in the Ambulance was the band's second major release, and the first album that I was exposed to.  It had some minor radio play for the singles "Stare at the Sun" and "All That's Left".  I heard them on the usual time slots over the boring FM air waves, they were okay, but nothing fantastic to stand out, just another generic punk rock band on the radio.  I continued to think this for a month or so, until one night when I was driving home from work-- it was late, so the talk show Love Line was playing.  Just before the show started, Dr. Drew and then co-host Adam Carolla announced that the band Thrice would be joining them in the studio that night.  I wasn't terribly thrilled, but there was nothing else on so I figured what the hell and continued to listen.  The band talked about the album and eventually played the title track, "The Artist in the Ambulance".

Band Overview: Thrice

I was pretty well blown away, it had an amazing meandering guitar that started the song off and trailed through the rest of the song peaking in and out, layered over and under a fantastic story about... an artist in an ambulance...  Haha, to clarify, the song is written from the perspective of the singer, after car crash, as he is escorted away from the crash in an ambulance, saved by the paramedics.  It focuses on all of his regrets in life and how he is grateful to be alive, but worries that he was not worthy of being saved.  

Listen to Thrice's "The Artist in the Ambulance".

Late night, brakes lock, hear the tires squeal
Red light, can't stop so I spin the wheel
My world goes black before I feel an angel lift me up
And I open bloodshot eyes into fluorescent white
They flip the siren, hit the lights, close the doors and I am gone

Now I lay here owing my life to a stranger
And I realize that empty words are not enough
I'm left here with the question of just
What have I to show except the promises I never kept?
I lie here shaking on this bed, under the weight of my regrets...

I bought the album the next day.  Once again, I wasn't expecting much, but was shocked to find that the album housed a wealth of different material, varying widely stylistically.  Melodies, riffs, hardcore, softcore, love, anger, politics, social criticism, drugs, war, money, poverty, greed, religion, you name it.  This album had it all.  Each track a masterpiece in its own right.  My favorite tracks are "The Melting Point of Wax", which is a huge extended metaphor using the myth of Icarus as a base, and "The Abolition of Man".  The album as a whole is fantastic and so full of emotion, save the two radio singles, which are not bad anyway.

Shortly after the release of The Artist in the Ambulance, Thrice released a Live/Cover/Rare album entitled If We Could Only See Us Now.  I'm not usually one to jump on such albums for newer bands, but this was hard to pass up.  It was like $7 and had 3 Live recordings and a plethora of covers and rare tracks.  They covered The Beetles (Eleanor Rigby), but more interestingly, themselves, with the track "So Strange I Remember You".  This track was originally on the first album, and had an amazing intro with slow paced eerie guitar work and lots of echoes-- but the track suddenly exploded into thrash punk and the speed over-kill made it almost impossible to decipher the lyrics, raping the song of its emotion.  The new cover is a live recording, and the song is played more slowly throughout, and has an incredible aura to it.  The lyrics here show a trend in Thrice's work, that is, a combination of criticisms of love and society in the same breath.  This section of lyrics gives me chills every time I hear it:

Band Overview: Thrice

Listen to Thrice's "If We Could Only See Us Now".

Feigning an apology,
Those words they never left your lips.
Those five years in Bermuda slide by like the lights of passing ships.
So strange that I remember you,
Knee-deep in Nietzsche's lies,
My throat was an open grave I drank your stained glass eyes.

And they taste like dead cathedrals that're crumbling beneath the weight,
of Ten thousand jaded tourists,
Who've traded in their hearts and hands, for
Disposable cameras set to document to decay,
Set to capture just enough of life to catalogue the things we throw away.
Breathing the fumes of our machines.
We've lost our way.
Breathing through television dreams.

If we could only see us now.
If we could only see us now.

Fast-forward a bit, and we're at Thrice's first adventure into what I would consider "Indie", venturing away from the punk genre with an album called Vheissu.  I actually despised this album for over a year because it was so vastly different than the last.  The vocals were different, and the music sounded like it had been recorded in an alley at night, with the drums played on trashcan lids... it was just... a very weird sound.  Distorted, it sounded as if it hadn't been perfected.  I realize now that the band was aiming for that imperfect sound, and working towards that atmosphere was actually even more fantastic than overproducing the sound-- hooray for Indie.

Band Overview: Thrice

Thrice did a fantastic job of having a very unique sound for each song, depending on and relative to the subject material, while still staying within the intended sound theme for the album.  In the track "The Earth Will Shake", the band uses multi-layered vocals to simulate the sound of many men singing, as if from a prison or plantation, saying "We dream of ways to break these iron bars...", with a loud clap in between sets, simulating a group of people stomping or clapping.  The song "Music Box" uses just what you think, music box melodies, and they are integrated into the music style and grace.  "Stand and Feel Your Worth" features a breathtaking vocal display throughout, and "Of Dust and Nations" is essentially about how all of civilization and all things eventually crumple, and you should have values beyond what man has built:

Listen to "Of Dust and Nations" off of Thrice's "Vheissu".

The towers that shoulder your pride,
The words you've written in stone,
Sand will cover them,
Sand will cover you.
The streets that suffer your name,
Your very flesh and your bones,
Sand will cover them,
Sand will cover you.

So put your faith,
In more than steel,
Don't store your treasures up,
With moth and rust,
Where thieves break in and steal.
Pull the fangs,
From out your heel.
O'We live in but a shadow of the real.

And finally, we reach the present, with the release of The Alchemy Index, Vols I & II: Fire and Water, a most fantastical addition to an already stunning lineup of work.  Thrice did a great job with the packaging on this release, a tri-fold dual disc setup, with Fire on the left, Water on the right, and the booklet in between.  The book art is astounding, unique, and manages to tie the lyrics listings into the imagery while still being legible.  The concept here is really neat, the Fire album has tracks related to that element only, as does Water.  They will be releasing another 2 Volumes in the neat future, I can't wait.

Band Overview: Thrice

Fire begins with the track "Firebreather" which starts the album off with an immediate dive into Thrice's now even more Indie sound.  You might think that the Indie-ness would grow excessive, but it's so well done that it's hard to rag on.  Add into the mix that this song features a professional choir during the outro, and you've got yourself one hell of a sound.  Of course, breathing fire is a metaphor, in typical fashion, and an awesome one at that:

Listen to "Firebreather" off of Thrice's "Fire".

Tell me are you free
Tell me are you free
In word or thought or deed
Tell me are you free
While the gallows stand

And bullets lance the bravest lungs
We fold our hands and hold our tongues

Tell me are you free
When the fear falls on you
Tell me are you free
When the fear falls on you

Tell me are you free
Tell me are you free
In word or thought or deed
Tell me are you free
While the gallows stand

And bullets lance the bravest lungs
Will I fold my hands or hold my tongue

Or let the flames lick at my feet
Or breathe in fire and know I'm free
Flames will rise and devour me
Oh, to breathe in fire and know I'm free

Know I'm free!

**Fantastic Choir performance!**

Water is no slouch either, but where Fire seems more lyrically driven, Water seems to have focused more on the sound.  Both discs achieve lyrics and music very strongly, but there seems to be just the slightest tilt of a difference between them in those two areas.  The opening track, "Digital Sea" is almost techno, yet still retains Thrice's indie sound.   Midway through the album the band graces us with an instrumental track, titled "Night Diving", which, like this entire album, just goes to show how well Thrice can establish an atmosphere and immerse you in an imaginary world without having to tell you specifically that you are supposed to be there.  It really sounds like you are diving in an ocean in the moon-light, it really feels like it.

Listen to "Digital Sea" off of Thrice's "Water".

I woke, cold and alone
Adrift in an open sea
Caught up in regrets
And tangled in nets
Instead of your arms wrapped around me
And I wept, but my tears are anathema here
Just more water to fill my lungs
I hear someone scream
"Oh God what is it that I've done?"

I am drowning in a digital sea
I am slipping beneath the sound
Here my voice goes to ones and zeros
I'm slipping beneath the sound

A song from somewhere below
Deadly and slow begins
Both sickly and sweet
Now picking up speed
Ushering in the world's end
And the ghost of Descartes screams again in the dark
"Oh how could I have been so wrong?"
But above the screams the sirens still sing their song

I am drowning in a digital sea
I am slipping beneath the sound
Here my voices goes to ones and zeros
I'm slipping beneath the sound

Here my voice goes to ones and zeros
**Repeat till the end, in techno loop**

Ultimately I believe that Thrice is one of the most talented groups out there today, and they continue to impress with each new release.  Their mastery of both sound and message is truly showed by their ability to blend the two together, and blur the line that separates them.  What you might often get out of lyrics, you may find yourself already getting just from the way a Thrice song sounds, before the lyrics even kick it.  Thrice makes music that you can feel, and that is the best kind of music.  

Whew.  Well, that's it folks.  Listen to Thrice, buy a t-shirt, get every album, or the boogie-man will eat you.    Hope you enjoyed the read.

[Yoggi]

holy hell you've been busy. i'll read this when i have time lol

[oograx]

I like the later stuff (of these tracks listed), because it's less pussy faggot stuff and more unusual asskick.

[MetalMusicMan]

I like the later stuff (of these tracks listed), because it's less pussy faggot stuff and more unusual asskick.

I'm somewhat shocked that you liked them at all, but more shocked that you liked the Indie selection better than the hardcore selection... Oograx, have you gone soft on me? 

[oograx]

wellll, no, i should say i like the fire song, the water one is gay, but the fire song plays somewhat like a perfect circle imo.

[Yoggi]

for thrice... from what i've heard in pvp videos and shit, their less bad than most indie, but not really  a style i like.