Thrice
The Alchemy Index Vols. III-IV
Vagrant Records
8/10

Son of a bitch. Seriously, I have not cared about Thrice before. Not one bit. I didn’t hate them, don’t get me wrong, I just never saw what all the commotion was about. Now, with The Alchemy Index Vols. III-IV, I have a Thrice album that not only do I enjoy, but I hate taking it out of my CD player. It takes an idea that most bands can’t do, a concept album, and does it in an amazing fashion.

I thought, “Oh, goodie, Thrice is going to sing about the wind and mud, whoopity doo.” Nope. Instead, each theme is represented in the song-writing, with Air being a solid album of light jazz piano, acoustic guitars and crooning vocals. Earth is, well, down to Earth with some Americana/Folk tinges to some damn near flawless production. Each disc has half a dozen tracks to round out the other two volumes of Fire and Water, which I will now have to go track down and check out as well. Dammit.

-Jonathan “The Emperor” Yost