"THRICE!!!!
RAAARRRR!!!!!"
screamed the ruggedly sensitive young man with the sixty dollar haircut and the tasteful facial piercings.
at least
that's how i imagine it
never having been to a thrice show i can't be sure
but what's a young middle class kid to do when his friends won't let him listen emo, and his parents won't let him listen to hardcore?
emocore
i'm being sarcastic. and it isn't fair. because the truth is thrice rocks. hard. and i am that kid. or at least i was. so i know how great it must be to put this stuff on and just rage out to it, because when i compare it to the stuff i was listening to "back then" to get my rocks off, most of it couldn't compare. except maybe Downset. but that is a different review for a different day.
if you take Metallica worthy hard licks, layer them with tonal harmonic dissonance that is just enough Tool to rock, but not enough to be scary, and space them out with acutal (gasp!) chord changes (i know, how un-cool), you have the basis of thrice. add real solid vocal melodies given gravitas by some convincing yet tastefully sparse screaming, and a driving punkish backbeat, and there's no way you're not going to get totally amped up by this music.
all that leaves is the lyrics. which at times, can leave something to be desired. with lines like "true friends stab you in the front" and all but four or five songs containing the words "love," "her" or both, this is the stuff of latent adolescent angst all the way from start to finish. this is like an albums worth of that day in 10th grade english class when they made you stand up and read a poem, and everyone that actually took the assignment seriously writes some seriously over-wrought, melodramatic, narcissitic shit that makes everyone in the room squirm uncomfortably and avert their eyes until its finally all over and everyone shuffles out the room silently looking down like they all share some big secret, and its at least until lunchtime before the awkwardness has passed and you can look at your friends in the eye again without feeling totally fucking naked.
whoa
where am i?
oh
right
music review
anyway. i'm being unfair again. the lyrics really aren't bad. they're just a little overdone sometimes. if you want some thrice with a LITTLE more perspective you should check out the album that came out after this one, The Artist in the Ambulance. That album is stronger lyrically, with themes of betrayl and dis-trust and death that is all quite plainly post 9/11, but it all happens at the cost of some of the raw punk energy you find here. my suggestion: listen to both. they are both great hard rock albums that are worth checking out.
RAAARRRR!!!!!"
screamed the ruggedly sensitive young man with the sixty dollar haircut and the tasteful facial piercings.
at least
that's how i imagine it
never having been to a thrice show i can't be sure
but what's a young middle class kid to do when his friends won't let him listen emo, and his parents won't let him listen to hardcore?
emocore
i'm being sarcastic. and it isn't fair. because the truth is thrice rocks. hard. and i am that kid. or at least i was. so i know how great it must be to put this stuff on and just rage out to it, because when i compare it to the stuff i was listening to "back then" to get my rocks off, most of it couldn't compare. except maybe Downset. but that is a different review for a different day.
if you take Metallica worthy hard licks, layer them with tonal harmonic dissonance that is just enough Tool to rock, but not enough to be scary, and space them out with acutal (gasp!) chord changes (i know, how un-cool), you have the basis of thrice. add real solid vocal melodies given gravitas by some convincing yet tastefully sparse screaming, and a driving punkish backbeat, and there's no way you're not going to get totally amped up by this music.
all that leaves is the lyrics. which at times, can leave something to be desired. with lines like "true friends stab you in the front" and all but four or five songs containing the words "love," "her" or both, this is the stuff of latent adolescent angst all the way from start to finish. this is like an albums worth of that day in 10th grade english class when they made you stand up and read a poem, and everyone that actually took the assignment seriously writes some seriously over-wrought, melodramatic, narcissitic shit that makes everyone in the room squirm uncomfortably and avert their eyes until its finally all over and everyone shuffles out the room silently looking down like they all share some big secret, and its at least until lunchtime before the awkwardness has passed and you can look at your friends in the eye again without feeling totally fucking naked.
whoa
where am i?
oh
right
music review
anyway. i'm being unfair again. the lyrics really aren't bad. they're just a little overdone sometimes. if you want some thrice with a LITTLE more perspective you should check out the album that came out after this one, The Artist in the Ambulance. That album is stronger lyrically, with themes of betrayl and dis-trust and death that is all quite plainly post 9/11, but it all happens at the cost of some of the raw punk energy you find here. my suggestion: listen to both. they are both great hard rock albums that are worth checking out.