Thrice's upcoming album... Thoughts?
 

Thrice is currently working on a 4 disc "concept" album with the theme being elemental (fire, earth, air, water). Each element will represent the type of song that will be played (ex. The Fire cd will be harder, more metal whereas the Earth cd will be more acoustic).I am looking forward to how this will turn out as I have thoroughly enjoyed their last two albums as they have shown growth in both of them. What are your thoughts on the group and specifically their new album?

Here's what they said about the album on their website:

9/6/2006

As a lot of you may know, for the past month or so, we've been writing and recording our next album. We didn't want to say anything official until we'd finalized a lot of the details, but now that we're getting rolling on it, we want you guys to be the first to know what the plans are for this album.

We have started writing and recording a 4 disc concept record, with each disc being themed sonically and thematically to correspond with the four natural elements - earth, air, water and fire. The final record will have somewhere between 20 and 25 songs, divided between the 4 discs.

We are approaching the whole project in a new way for us, both writing and recording. Writing with these elements in mind, we are letting them shape the direction of the songs sonically and thematically. And for the first time, we're recording the record ourselves as we write it, freeing us up to change things as we go.

We are very excited about the project and are looking forward to sharing more details as the record takes shape. We're also in the process of setting up a site dedicated to keeping you up to date on our progress, so keep a look out for that in the near future.

For our friends on the west coast, we have two events to talk about. The first is the Race for the Cure later this month. We'll be doing the race this year along with our friends Chuck Ragan and The Cold War Kids. Dustin, Chuck, and the Cold War Kids will be doing a special acoustic show after exclusively for those who attend the Race with us. All of the sign up details are posted below as well as on our MySpace page.

Also, we wil be heading out on a few dates in October, with two awesome bands - These Arms are Snakes and Planes Mistaken for Stars. We're putting together a brand new setlist, digging up some old songs we haven't played in a while, songs we've never played live before, and a couple of the new songs we're working on.

Stay tuned for more details about the elements, videos, and pictures. We'll get to all of that as the album progresses. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

-Thrice

It sounds like one of those projects that'll either be really good, or horribly bad. Being a big fan of Thrice, my hope is that it'll be really good. :D I can't wait!

That sounds cool. I've enjoyed their last two albums too.

Vheissu was my pick for album of the year when it came out, and I like all of Thrice's albums. I'm a bit skeptical of how this will play out though. 4 CDs is a lot of music to come up with and there's always the danger that only some of the songs will truely be great. Look at most double albums by quality bands and you'll often find a lot more filler. The other thing is Thrice isn't known for writing particularly long or epic tracks. 20-25 songs split between 4 CDs is 5-7 songs per disc. I would be pissed if all four of the discs had 30-40 minutes of music each. Maybe they're just miscommunicating and this will be a two CD set with each CD split between virtual "sides" as that would make a lot more sense.

Well definitely pick this up no matter what, but I'm still a bit concerned at the moment.

This was my first thought when I read about this awhile back. I love Thrice, especially their last album, Vheissu, so I'm really hoping this will be great.

Thought I'd bump this. Found out today on Wikipedia's page for Thrice that the new album will be split into two releases and the first release, <i>The Alchemy: Vols. I & II - Fire & Water</i>, is due on October 16, with the second release, <i>Vols. III & IV - Earth & Air</i>, due in early 2008.
-ringding-

Great news. Once they left Island Records I started to worry if the album would ever be released, esp. with its weird nature (originally a 4 disc set). I cant wait for it to come out.

That is good news. I'll pick up the first part on October 16th.

Also of interest: Dustin Kensrue has a solo album out recently, although it's the polar opposite of Thrice's material. There's only an accoustic guitar, harmonica, and his voice. I've heard decent things about it.

Three music video clips from the new album up at the bands myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/thrice

Thrice: The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II (10/16/07)
 

As many may know, Thrice has decided to split there 4 disc element themed cd into two separate 2 disc sets. The first (Alchemy Index: Vol I & II) comes out 10/16/07 and the next 2 disc set will be released early next year. The first 2 discs are covering Fire (A hard, menacing sound) and Water (more electronic/experimental). You can check out one song from both albums on there myspace page www.myspace.com/thrice . Thus far I really like the Fire song and the Water song is nice too.They are one of my favorite bands so Im really looking forward to this one. They are also going on tour kicking off with two shows in my city, Detroit!!! Ill be at the first one.

We can post are thoughts on the album on this thread.

I'm not feeling this one at all. They're definitely going in a different direction. Almost sounds like Muse or something.

so far, I love both discs. I can't wait until the last two volumes.

That may be an improvement, their last two albums have been borderline unlistenable.

This is the first Thrice album that I have heard, and I'm liking it. It is interesting to hear it on shuffle, because then you get the harsh music of Fire mixed in with the more mellow music of Water. Is the physical release of this 2 disks? Because the digital is just 12 tracks - seems that 6 songs per disk is awfully light.

the release was initially meant to be 4 EPs. The first "set" consists of 2 discs; one for Fire, one for Water. I combined the two onto a CD-R, but I understand the reasoning behind keeping them separate (ie. I don't think the first track of Water was meant to be heard IMMEDIATELY after the last track of Fire).
The second "set" will be out next spring... and I can't wait that long!

This is a solid album. The Fire disc is my preference as its closer to older Thrice songs although Water has some good tracks. In all, its not as good as the last two albums but still very good IMO. Id give it 3.75/5

After having it for about a week, I have to say that Fire isn't holding much replay value for me and sounds more and more like a continuation of Vheissu with each listen, while Water is still marginally keeping my interest but is really far removed from the Thrice I've been listening to for over 5 years now. They're both good albums, I just don't think I'll listen to them very much.

Air and Earth come out on Tuesday. Anyone else planning on picking them up? There's a full stream up on the band's Myspace page. So far, I'm really digging Air, but like Water, it's really far removed from the Thrice I fell in love with all those years ago.

Regarding Volumes I & II, I stand by my above post, but a couple of songs I previously couldn't stand have really grown on me. Ultimately, I'm really looking forward to being able to listen to all 4 in a row.

ETA: Alright, I've listened to III & IV. Overall, I wish they'd been able to release the whole thing as a 4-disc set all at once. I have a feeling it would've made a lot more sense without the 6-month gap between releases, since the albums sound progressively less like Thrice. Air is ambient and textured-sounding, but without the techno-ish sounds of Water. Earth is largely acoustic and sounds like a mix of Thrice and Dustin's solo material. When all is said and done, I think they did a great job capturing each of the "elements" in musical form.

I think Air and Earth is vastly superior to Fire. Fire didn't click with me at all. There were flashes of the old Thrice there. But the whole effort is just frustrating more than anything. Air is a really good album though.

I think Air and Water are the strongest of the four, but I enjoy at least half of the songs from all of them.