I hope you’re ready for the final part of my Alchemy Index review, since this ones going to be a big one feel free to skip to the final verdict if you’re too lazy to read. While I found Thrice’s first two volumes to be slightly lacking in depth, they’ve more than made up for the disappointing Water EP with the final two volumes of III:Air & IV: Earth.
Though concept album’s have been kicking around since the 60′s (The Who’s Tommy & Pink Floyd’s The Wall), most modern attempts at the Rock Opera seem to revolve around the principle of tying an album’s songs together through a storyline rather than a instrumental theme. (Green Day’s American Idiot, My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade and all of Coheed & Cambria’s albums). Therefore when I first heard that Thrice’s next album would revolve around capturing the raw feel & power of the elements I was intrigued to see what their interpretation of a concept album would be.
While the initial two volumes of The Alchemy Index succeeded at capturing the fury of fire & the calm of water they seemed to be lacking the heart & passion of previous Thrice Albums. The theory of a concept album only seemed to constrict their sound and resulted in too many songs sounding the same. Thankfully their previous experimentation seems to have paid off with volume III :Air & IV: Earth. So without further ado here’s my track by track review of Air & Earth.
Volume III: Air
Broken Lungs: The opening track begins with subtle guitar strumming, gentle drumming & a chime of bells before it hits it’s stride with a soft chorus at the minute mark. While it’s name brings to mind screaming vocals, at heart it’s really a mournful ballad about the S11 attacks ‘Cause we all watched the buildings fall, watched the scales fall from our eyes’. While the pace gently changes throughout, the anger is effectively held back until the final minutes when the drumming reaches a crashing peak & the vocals break out with ‘We want answers, scream from the roofs, we want justice, we want the truth’.
The Sky Is Falling: The lines ‘Your dance & jingo cabaret, it’s coming down’ perfectly sum up the feel of this hand clapping, bell jingling track. While this is one of the most pop sounding and catchy Thrice songs I’ve heard it’s contrasted with a conflicting message about war and the condition of the world, ‘I’m gonna be strong enough, not let my fear decide my fate, surrounded by *jingoists* , I don’t want any part of this’.
(* There’s your word for the day).
A Song For Milly Michaelson: Wind chimes, simple guitar chords and some beautiful singing are the only components in this song based on the 1980′s film The Boy Who Could Fly. While it’s probably not to everyone’s tastes it’s stripped back nature and haunting melody makes this the most effective sounding wind song on the EP.
Daedalus: This 6 min long tale, tells the story of Icarus’s father with a metaphoric message that could be interpreted as giving someone more responsibility than they’re ready for. Dominant instrumental work give this song a strong backbone to work with but the coarse vocals are a bit too gravelly to fit in with the wind theme. It’s also a bit too meandering and slow for my liking.
As The Crow Flies: Another acoustic track that sounds fairly similar to A song for Milly Michaelson. Mandolin & soft vocals conjure an airy peaceful atmosphere about a child growing up & spreading his wings. While it hasn’t grow on me as much as the earlier tracks it may appeal to those that like slower paced songs.
Silver Winds: Volume III is concluded with the synthetic beats of Silver Wings. While it sounds fairly similar to songs on the Water EP this one has more life due to prominent vocals that weave a less abstract and more personal tale about love & relationships. At only 2 min long it doesn’t really have enough room to spread its wings (excuse the pun) and would have benefited with a longer length.
Final verdict: Thrice have successfully managed to capture the ethereal nature of air on their third volume of The Alchemy Index. While the first three tracks on the EP contain poignantly powerful lyrics & interesting melodies the remaining songs seem to loose a bit of steam and unfortunately start to sound fairly familiar to each other. Additional guitar overlays and more drumming work would have alleviated these problems but as it stands this EP is much better than the boring drone of the Water volume. If your in the right frame of mind and just want to kick back & relax Air is definitely worth a listen and is a perfect contrast to the Fire EP.
80 / 100 pennies
Highlight Tracks
Broken Lungs
The Sky Is Falling
A Song For Milly Michaelson
Volume IV: Earth
Moving Mountains: This raw & sincere acoustic track appropriately sums up the earthy sounds found of Volume IV. The presence of twanging guitars, subtle foot stamps & absence of drums lend this track a real blues & roots style. The honest lyrics ‘All hidden things are opened up to me, but I don’t know the first thing about love’ are at the forefront of this song and showcase how far Dustin’s singing has progressed since the early days of Thrice. This simple yet effective track has become one of my favorite tracks from The Alchemy Index.
Digging My Own Grave: Another quality track that really has a life of it’s own. The prominent and mournful piano melody sets up an atmosphere thats probably not to everyones tastes and brings to mind Brand New at their depressive best. The title pretty much speaks for itself & I can only assume this is a fiction tale about resignation & defeat ‘You know cancer can’t catch me, let’s have another drink or three, don’t be a bore’.
The Earth Isn’t Humming: Some fantastic bass chords lend this one a real tribal beat that blends perfectly with the rich arpeggio style guitar chords. This heavily instrumental track gives the song plenty of weight while the powerful vocals are used to conjure an apocalyptic menace with the repeating message ‘Fall down’.
The Lion And The Wolf: A real stripped back song with soft vocals accompanied by more sombre piano. The presence of choral support vocals lend it an almost classical sound and while this may not appeal to everything it really shows that Thrice are capable of tackling any musical subject matter. The melody & fairy tale lyrics bring to mind a haunting brother’s Grimm tale but the words could also be interpreted as an anti war analogy ‘The lion’s outside of your door, the wolf’s in your bed, the lion’s claws are sharpened for war, the wolf’s teeth are red’.
Come All You Weary: This is the only earth track to contain drumming from Riley Breckenridge (he must have felt really left out on this EP) which lends the song an extra layer of depth and provides it with the same hypnotic quality as Burn The Fleet (from the Fire EP) . The rich timbre guitar sounds blend perfectly with the husky vocals & fit in with the laid back vibe.
Child Of Dust: The finale to the Alchemy Index doesn’t really live up to the hefty standards set on the previous tracks. Like all the final songs from each volume this ambient track is really a poem about man’s relationship with the elements. Since all these songs contain the same verse structure, vocal melody & chord progression (in a different key) it comes as no surprise that this tracks just as disappointing as the other finales. Interestingly there’s a dramatic cutout of the piano at the half way point with a muffling of vocals that convey the smothering feel of being buried alive. The last minute of silence is a stark ending to the album which symbolises returning to the earth through death (Either that or it could just mean that after 24 songs of The Alchemy Index, Thrice finally ran out of ideas of how to end it).
Final Verdict: The final volume of The Alchemy Index is a perfect example of how to embrace a concept album. While Volume I was fully of intense rage & power it’s lack of uniqueness didn’t really push the band into any new areas. On the flipside the antithetic nature of Volume II resulted in too much digital experimentation that ultimately resulted in a flat and lifeless EP. Fortunately Volume III breaths some new life into The Alchemy Index & perfectly captured the soothing & incorporeal nature of air. Volume IV brought Thrice back to earth with heartfelt acoustic numbers that showcased the spirited nature of the elements. I would definitely rate Volume IV my favorite EP from The Alchemy Index and would place it just under the sublime Vheissu as my favorite Thrice release. The only downside is that they didn’t make this EP into a full album and therefore I can only wait to see where their next evolution of sound will take them.
90/100 pennies
Highlight Tracks (yep pretty much all of them)
Moving Mountains
Digging My Own Grave
The Earth Isn’t Humming
The Lion And The Wolf
Come All You Weary
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