Review Summary: If you want a Thrice rock-out album this is not the one for you.
If you want a Thrice rock-out album this is not the one for you.
I'm going to be honest with you. The first Thrice album I got into was Beggars. A friend of mine, who is a huge Thrice fan, purchased it the day it came out. At the time I thought Thrice's material prior to Beggars was "emo and lame". I suppose said friend of mine could have been playing the songs that weren't as good, or the really old stuff. Beggars was the album for me that made me think "Thrice actually put out something good." Years later I discovered Vheissu and Artist. After that Thrice was secure as a great band in my mind. Then the friend of mine told me about the Alchemy Index...
The third act in the the Index is Air, one of the four classical elements of Greek mythology. Air might be considered the oddest of the four elements. Thrice experimented a lot with this EP, and of course the proggy So-Cal quartet has been doing it with their whole line of work since Vheissu. But this EP might have the most nuances out of them all. Like the clapping hands (kind of like something out of a Mute-Math song maybe?), and trippy horns in "The Sky Is Falling". Granted, there are probably a lot of songs with that name (Queens of the Stone Age for one) but this song owns all other tracks with that same name. Thrice uses this opportunity to use odd time signatures like in the epic fairy tale of a track, "Daedalus", evidently there is a father and son story behind it. "A Song For Milly Michaelson" starts off soft with a nice acoustic guitar and singer Dustin Kensrue's soothing voice. It has a nice buildup and gets heavy for maybe ten seconds before going quiet again. The opener is the highlight of Air, best representing what Air is all about. Very beautiful song with cool drums and outstanding vocal melodies. The screaming part is also very cool and experimental instead of being repetitive, which the band probably are guilty of in very early years. It's a scream with a falsetto at the end for ***'s sake.
Earth, the final EP, you could say is a risk for the band. The simple explanation for that would be because its the mellowest Thrice release. But this was nothing short of perfection for the masters of the classical element. Lots of piano... The album is soulful as hell, especially the twangy and ballsy "Moving Mountains". The hook is amazing, catchy, and simple "I don't know the first thing about love" but its not a song by L.A. Glam sensation, Ratt, it's by Thrice and it's a bluesy number. "Digging My Own Grave" is a very mellow song with female harmonies. "The Earth Isn't Humming" is probably the weirdest song on Alchemy Index IV: Earth, but it is definitely one of the gems. The Alchemy still is impressive even in its final stage. They could have gotten away with making I, II, and III great releases and made IV a piece of trash and people wouldn't mind. But Thrice never settles on 75% awesome. That would be a C in school and I'm pretty sure they all got great grades.
Overall this is another great piece of music in Thrice's catalog. Very experimental and full of emotion... Fire had its moments, Water excellent all around as Air and Earth.
Highlight songs: "Broken Lungs", A Song For Milly Michaelson", "Daedalus", "Moving Mountains", "The Earth Isn't Humming"
