Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV Air & Earth [2008]

Genre: Emo, Post-Hardcore, Folk Rock

MySpace: thrice

My opinion & thought: Once again, great concept album by Thrice, based on the Fire, Water, Air & Earth of the alchemy elements. This is the Air & Earth concept album which feature windy and emotional Air type of music, and down-to-earth kinda folk rock tunes. I personnaly prefer this volume III & IV rather than the previous volume I & II.

Stands out track(s): Broken Lungs, Come All You Weary, Daedalus, Moving Mountains, Digging My Own Grave, The Lion & The Wolf

The Alchemy Index is Thrice's fifth studio recording, a four-disc concept album that was split between two releases, the first in October 2007 and the second in April 2008. The band originally planned to release four discs at once, each disc with six tracks representing one of the four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. A blog titledThe Alchemy Index chronicled the album's progress for fans.

The album debuted at #17 on the Billboard 200.

The second half of The Alchemy Index was released on April 15, 2008. The first half, The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II: Fire & Water, was released on October 16, 2007.

The band debuted "Come All You Weary" from the Earth disc during the short tour leading up to Bamboozle. Videos of the performance can be found on YouTube. According to the band, this song is the only song from the Earth disc that has a full drum kit or any instrument that isn't acoustic. A version of the song professionally recorded by AOL can be found here.

Clips from the songs "Broken Lungs," "Silver Wings," "Moving Mountains," and "Come All You Weary" were featured in studio videos released by the band before the release of the first half of The Alchemy Index. These videos can be found on YouTube and MySpace, respectively. Additionally, the songs "Broken Lungs" and "Moving Mountains" made their live debut and can be found in a number of YouTube videos. On March 25, the Radio One Rock Show debuted "Daedalus" from the Air disc. "Daedalus" is the second song released by Thrice with lyrics about the legend of Daedalus, the other being "The Melting Point of Wax" from their 2003 album The Artist in the Ambulance. March 28 saw the debut of the studio version of "Broken Lungs" on the band's Myspace page. "The Sky Is Falling" was played on the Radio One Punk Show on April 8.

Both discs leaked on April 9 by release group FNT. Two days later, the band made the entire album available to stream on their MySpace page.

Tracklisting:

Vol III: Air

1. "Broken Lungs" - 4:14
2. "The Sky Is Falling" - 4:21
3. "A Song for Milly Michaelson" - 5:07
4. "Daedalus" - 6:00
5. "As the Crow Flies" - 2:22
6. "Silver Wings" - 2:10

Vol IV: Earth

1. "Moving Mountains" - 2:55
2. "Digging My Own Grave" - 3:04
3. "The Earth Isn't Humming" (Frodus cover) - 4:58
4. "The Lion and the Wolf" - 2:42
5. "Come All You Weary" - 4:08
6. "Child of Dust" - 3:09

Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II Fire & Water [2007]

Genre: Hardcore, Emo, Post-Hardcore, Electronica

MySpace: thrice

My opinion & thought: Great concept album by Thrice, based on the Fire, Water, Air & Earth of the alchemy elements. This is the Fire & Water concept album which feature loud & heavy fire type of songs & soft as water's electronica tunes.

Stands out track(s): Firebreather, The Arsonist, Digital Sea, Lost Continent

* Password: schattenstieg

Thrice is an American experimental rock/post-hardcore band from Irvine, California. The group was founded in 1998 by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitaristTeppei Teranishi while they were in high school.

Early in their career, the band was known for their "powerful, driving beats and buzz-saw riffs," mainly due to the release of their second album, The Illusion of Safety (2002). Thrice released their third album The Artist in the Ambulance in 2003, showing off their musicianship by intricating music stylings such as complex time signatures as shown in "Silhouette." Their fourth album Vheissu (2005) was portrayed by many critics as being experimentally unique, using non-conventional Thrice elements in the process; it introduced a new sound to the band's post-hardcore roots. Following this was The Alchemy Index (2007/2008), which only furthered Thrice's reputation as illustrious musicians and songwriters.

Throughout the band's career, they have been known to donate proceeds from album sales to charitable or non-profit organizations.

Current line-up:

• Dustin Kensrue - lead vocals, guitar
• Teppei Teranishi - guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Eddie Breckenridge - bass, vocals
• Riley Breckenridge - drums

The Alchemy Index is Thrice's fifth studio recording, a four-disc concept album that was split between two releases, the first in October 2007 and the second in April 2008. The band originally planned to release four discs at once, each disc with six tracks representing one of the four classical elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The album was recorded from late 2006 to early 2007, and a blog titled The Alchemy Index chronicled the album's progress for fans.

Early in the development of the project, Dustin Kensrue posted the following update on the band's studio journal site:

"We sat down a couple weeks ago and made a rough timeline so that we wouldn’t find ourselves putting this out next winter instead of late spring/early summer. The plan is to record at least 75% of each disc at a time, and then have time to come back and re-evaluate, start mixing, and tie up any loose ends. Right now we have done a large amount of the Air disc and have just started up on Earth, which we’ve given ourselves only to the end of next week since we want it to have a pretty stripped down vibe and we don’t want to have time to over- think it. We moved the recording gear into an empty living room with hardwood floors and are recording the whole earth disc in here which is sounding very cool."

During the recording of the album, the band left Island Records, citing a difference in vision for the band's direction. On August 9, 2007, the band announced they had signed to Vagrant Records.

The band debuted a new track from the 'Fire' album and from the 'Earth' album during the mini-tour leading up to 2007 Bamboozle music festival. The titles of the tracks were later revealed as "Firebreather" and "Come All You Weary" respectively.

The album was released in the United States on October 16, 2007, and sold 28,000 copies in its first week. It debuted at #24 on the Billboard 200 chart and #5 on the iTunes top-selling albums.

Tracklisting:

Vol I: Fire

1. "Firebreather" - 4:24
2. "The Messenger" - 2:09
3. "Backdraft" - 4:08
4. "The Arsonist" - 4:13
5. "Burn the Fleet" - 3:46
6. "The Flame Deluge" - 3:27

Vol II: Water

1. "Digital Sea" - 3:44
2. "Open Water" - 3:46
3. "Lost Continent" - 4:30
4. "Night Diving" - 6:02
5. "The Whaler" - 4:09
6. "Kings Upon the Main" - 4:56