- Release date:
- October 16, 2007
- Artist/Band name:
- Thrice
- Record label:
- Vagrant
- Official Web Site:
- http://www.alchemyindex.com/
- Overall User Rating:
-
(1 rating)
Why you should care: The first half of a promised four-volume set, “The Alchemy Index Vols. I and II” finds Thrice splitting their heavier and lighter songs onto two separate EPs, labeled “Fire” and “Water,” respectively. This is a well-worn formula by now, practiced by everyone from the Foo Fighters to Nelly, but Thrice puts its own spin on it, completing the transformation from highbrow hardcore to full-blown prog-rock that the group began on “Vheissu.”
Verdict: The best songs on “Alchemy Index” are as good or better than anything Thrice has ever done, particularly the thunderous “Burn the Fleet” on “Fire.” But quarantining the band’s two sonic extremes on separate discs feels like a mistake. Thrice’s music relies on the same slow-fast and quiet-loud dynamics as such obvious touchstones as At the Drive-In and Radiohead—but here, they’ve made those dynamics take a backseat to some high-concept pretensions that don’t really pay off.
X-Factor: For the last track on each EP, singer Dustin Kensrue wrote his lyrics in the form of a sonnet. “Each sonnet is written from the point of view of the personified element, speaking to mankind, and lamenting our various failings,” Kensrue explains. Got that?
