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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something for everyone., 18 April 2008
The Alchemy Index is split into four different Volumes: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. Each volume consists of six songs, one of which is instrumental. Although it was released in two separate albums (Vol. I and II, and then Vol. III and IV) it is one concept, and so should be considered one album. Most people buying the album will either have the other, or will buy them together, so this review applies to all volumes.
Vol. I - Fire Volume I is similar to Thrice's early career. How is the element of fire depicted in this Volume? Each of the 6 songs has a strong beat, and distortion, screaming, hard percussion are all featured throughout. There are some sections which are more quiet, but the majority of the songs are hard rock/metal. The lyrics' content and subject matter are all to do with fire of some kind, but each song has it's own narrative/point of view. For early fans of Thrice, this Volume will present what they say Thrice lost in the past album 'Vhiessu' - their metal/post-hardcore roots. For people not acquainted with the band, Volume I will probably be the least likely favourite in the index.
Vol. II - Water In Volume II Thrice return to where they left of with their previous album 'Vhiessu'. Vhiessu contained a lot of metaphors and narratives of the sea or seamanship, but Volume II goes further than just metaphors and narratives. The lyrics, again, are all in keeping with the element, and each song (except Night Diving, which is instrumental) is a different sea related story. The music is completely contrasting to Volume I. It could easily be mistaken for a different band. The guitar is hardly featured in any of the songs, slow synths are much more prevalent. The whole Volume has a submarine feel to it. Everything sounds muffled, and drowning, creating a completely serene, ambient atmosphere. When this atmosphere is combined with the lyrics a wonderful thing is created. It is the most melodic of all the Volumes, and will probably be the favourite on first listen to the album.
Vol. III - Air When thinking about a concept album dealing with the four elements, you can have some preconceptions about what each volume will be like. You expect the Fire volume to be aggressive and loud, and the water to be serene, flowing and melodic. But what about Air? Maybe on first listen, you won't get a sudden definite "yes, this volume is Air". However, it is easy to see how the band approached the idea. As with the other Volumes, the lyrics are all related with the air and sky. The music consists of a mixture of synth instruments and live instruments. The synths and keyboards often play either long, slow, swelling chords or delicate arpeggios. Everything about the songs are free, and soaring. It is these combined with the slow, high, choral harmonies that create the music in the air. For those who like a mix of the more rock sound and the ambient sound this Volume marries the two perfectly.
Vol. IV - Earth Like I said before, you have an idea already before you listen to this album about what you think Thrice will do for the element involved. Your first notion for Earth would probably be powerful bass, and strong drums. Thrice has created something much more subtle and effective though. This volume is so gritty, and down to Earth. Between each song you hear squeaking of stools, whispers counting in the bars, and walking around the studio, almost as if they created the whole thing in one live session. The best way to describe the sound is twangy. There is no distortion whatsoever in the volume; the guitars are twangy, Dustin's voice is twangy, and the piano is twangy. The songs have a folk/country feel to them, fused with blues. The sound is bare, earthy, and far more effective than what you would originally think if you created a suite of songs about Earth, the element. The lyrics are mostly concerned with the human condition, again through narrative, and again, with Earth an obvious metaphor in every song. This Volume is by far the newest sound of Thrice. They have never created anything like the timbre in this album, and perhaps they do so at great risk.
Some people feel that with every album, Thrice get further away from what they were originally. For me though, this band are merely progressing as musicians and creators. Each album harnesses a new, sometimes completely unrecognisable, sound, but also, every album has something that brings Thrice back to their hardcore root. The fact that such a band exists who go from blues, to hardcore, to ambient, using a whole host of instruments and musical techniques is astounding, and to do so in one album truly shows how significant this band are in a world where music is based on stereotypes and advertising.
My main criticism about the album is that Thrice haven't created complicated songs. They usually have some rhythmically, structurally, or melodically difficulties in their songs. Perhaps the focus in this album was to create a concept album, so the focus went from musicianship to art in a general sense. It is a stupid criticism, but it is all I could think of.
Each volume can, of course, be listened to on its own, and your musical taste will probably lead you to have a favourite. (The fact you can pick a CD on the same album by the same band based on musical taste is one reason why I love this band). Also, though, the volumes do indeed fit together to form the whole Alchemy Index. The sixth song of each volume finishes with the exact same chord progression and melody, albeit in keeping with the concept of the volume, and the key of the piece.
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6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No metal here - but solid nonetheless, 16 April 2008
As these albums have been released as a putative 4 disc concept album, I have taken the liberty of posting this review on both of the released sets. Two reasons for this - one, the 4 elements/discs should be looked at as a coherent whole, and two, anyone who intends to buy one of these releases, will surely buy both so hopefully you will see the validity in reviewing the whole thing.
Now, the first thing that strikes me - and I can't consider myself a "fan" as such, as I've never listened to any Thrice before - is that these albums are found in the metal sections of record stores and come up as "rock" on the old I pod. Of the four discs, only "Fire" (as you would expect) is what I would term "Rock". Otherwise the prevalent sound is one of wistful alt-country/folk with occasional blasts of Radiohead-like noise to stir up the mix. For me they have missed a chance on the "earth" disc where they might have gone in with some heavy growling bass and booming drums, but that obviously didn't fit in with the concept - which goes to show why these guys are producing fine music and I'm left to write this...
So are they good albums? Does the concept work? In my opinion the Fire and Water set is the best, more closely attuned with the concept of elements and a fine album in its own right. The earth and air one is also a good album but lyrical content aside, doesn't fit in so well with the concept, at least as far as I can see. Taken on their own merits then we have two fine albums, well worth 5 and 4 stars as given above, but are they good Thrice albums? I'm afraid I don't know but they have certainly enticed me into getting a couple of their previous releases and that can't be a bad thing.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This band should be huge., 20 April 2008
What can i write for a review on this album? well so far i simply think wow!?! The contrast in all four elements is such a contrast it can rattle your brain just by thinking "is this the same band?" and i can say yes it is, and this is why i think this album is amazing.
Starting with fire you got your old school thrice with its powerful and hardcore music sound as most fans will hear in past time thrice albums, each songs has alot of distortion, and from "Firebreather" to "The Flame Deluge" you got yourself a pretty heavy distorted guitar tone and heavy drums and low tuned bass and lyrics which match & sing about the element of fire from perspective to another. This album is for fans of old thrice, Deftones, and other hardcore bands.
Well second in this crazy concept is Water, which is more like newish thrice, more like the album Vheissu, and this album is more digital album out of the 4, as it contains more synth and drum machine sounds than any thing else you will hear from thrice. With the sound of synth and drums effects you get yourself a very underwater sound with this album. & with each song having some kind of voice effect on dustin to make his voice sound more like its underwater will make you dreamy. With lyrics about water, sailors, fear of water, etc it tops it off. This Album is for fans of New thrice, Radiohead (Kid A, Ok Computer).
Next is Air, and wow what a album this is, from the sample you heard back in 2007 i would say the most looked forward to in the concept (in my opinion) and was it worth the wait? it bloody was! This album combines the mixture of the synth-ness from Water and puts more of a airy/spacey feel to it and contains more real time instruments compared to water. The vocals are much more spaced out creating that air feel to the songs and the guitars are basically stuck on clean and delay/reverb half the time which adds to this effect, the drums are more of a background sound such as an effect sigur ros do. The use of piano in this album is also more frequent like Vheissu which is used to extreme effects! The song "A Song For Milly Michaelson" is named after a guy from a film in 1989 called "A Boy Who Could Fly" and is about there point of view of the film. This album is for fans of Vheissu, Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, and Radiohead.
Last but not least, is earth. A great album with such raw power behind it, and as the band stated in there video samplers of the albums you can hear that they left one microphone in one of the corners of the room and kept recording which will create more of the raw sound. The album contains a striped down band of Bass, Guitar (electric, and Acoustic), Vocals, Piano and drums, the album has no distortion in and has more of a beffy and rawer sound to it than the other 3. Earth is more of a folky concept than the other 3. The album also contains a cover called "The Earth Isn't Humming" which is a cover song from a band called "Frodo's". This album is for fans of Dustin's solo project, Vheissu and other folky/blues/rock bands.
All in all this album is definatly the best album of 2008 no doubt! The contrast between each volume is amazing and jaw dropping. If you had half a music sense you would agree and you would also agree that this band still has the potential to do anything. I just hope even the old fans who didn't like the sound of vheissu will reconise this album for its contrast and musical diffrences and respect it at least.
5/5 easily people if i could give a higher number i would and times it by 10!!
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