Thrice

Thrice is my favorite band. I started listening to Thrice by recommendations from friends a couple years ago, and I remember the first song I ever heard was Identity Crisis, the first song from their first album of the same name. Great song, but it took some listening to really digest it all- hardcore wasn't really my cup of tea at the time...but it wasn't long before I fell in love with it and Thrice is really what transitioned me. Thrice is composed of four members- Dustin Kensrue, Teppei Teranishi, Eddie Breckenridge, and Riley Breckenridge, who do vocals/rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, and drums, respectively. At least three of the four members are Christian, including Dustin who is an avid reader- C.S. Lewis being his favorite. 90% if not more of Thrice's lyrics are deep and faith-influenced. Identity Crisis was in the works when Thrice was just getting started and they were still very young at the time...and you can pretty much tell- the album is very...teenage-esque. But awesome. Fast-paced stuff. Next was The Illusion of Safety...this where the ball really got rolling. It was my favorite album at the time, and had Thrice's first big hit, Deadbolt...as well as a lot of other awesome songs that I really loved. See You in the Shallows...The Red Death...and the The Red Death was a song about Edgar A. Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" I think it was called...which was a short story we were reading in English last year when I was really into the album! So that was very cool. Next we have The Artist and the Ambulance, which I didn't even own until about two weeks ago when I got around to buying it. Thrice's real first major label album, and it did not disappoint. Probably their heaviest album overall, it had many hits like..of course, The Artist in the Ambulance and Stare at the Sun. They got a quite a bit of media attention on this one, and actually played live on late night shows and such. Next was the bridge between Thrice's hardcore background and where they are today- Vheissu. Vheissu not only had a very different name, but very different music. It was almost as if Thrice suddenly realized they can make whatever music they wanted, and they did just that. They weren't restricted by "hardcore" anymore, they felt free to just write songs I guess. Don't get me wrong, I love Thrice's metal-ish roots, and they had some deep lyrics there, but I think Vheissu was where they really got creative. Vheissu had some heavy stuff, but it wasn't necessarily hardcore. It was a different sound. Vheissu as a whole was based almost completely on the Bible...each song telling a different story, which is very cool. Like Moths to Flame was about Peter denying Christ...Music Box is about Christians basically trusting God. Very cool songs. Next, we get serious. The Alchemy Index. Released in two volumes, The Alchemy Index Vol. I released in Fall of 2007, and Vol. II the following Spring. This blew me away. Thrice attempted, through these albums, to capture the four elements in music. Vol. I contained six fire songs and six water songs, and Vol II contained six air and earth songs. This is literally the most amazing music I've ever heard. Fire was heavy and aggressive, water cool and soft...almost haunting at times, air was light, and earth was jazzy, acoustic, and sometimes pretty solemn. Awesome songs include Burn the Fleet from the Fire cd, The Whaler and Digital Sea from water, Daedalus and A Song for Milly Michaelson from air, and The Earth Isn't Humming from Earth. Now the thing with the Alchemy Index was after the end of each element's disc, there was a final song that personified an element, like it was speaking to all of mankind through the song...and at the end of each of those songs, there was a sonnet that pretty much summed up the whole cd. The songs are The Flame Deluge, Kings Upon the Main, Silver Wings, and Child of Dust. Fire told man that it didn't appreciate being used for destruction, water talked about redemption or something, air was in disbelief we actually curse it when it does so much for us, and earth said basically from dust you were made, to dust you can return. Biblical reference. So anyway, this is a long post...and it would be impossible to describe Thrice in only one. So, I'm gonna cut it off here. And thanks if you actually read this far.

Dustin Kensrue's MySpace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=10160857

Thrice's MySpace: www.myspace.com/thrice