MUSIC REVIEW: Thrice’s third album holds the charm
If the saying “third time’s the charm” has any truth to it, this just may be the lucky time around for the band Thrice.
Thrice’s third album, “The Artist in the Ambulance” is heavily soaked in the ghosts of bands such as Metallica. This California quartet almost pays homage to their influences with their newest album. The four-year-old band still blazes an original trail of their own. Blending the old with the new, Thrice comes out with a mix of tunes that will tickle your listening taste buds.
Lead singer Dustin Kensrue is a passionate reader and often finds inspiration for songs in the books he reads. And this time, Kensrue also found inspiration for an album in a relatively unknown author named Al Burian. Burian’s series called “Burn Collector” is, as Kensrue described it, a book of journal entries.
In one issue Kensrue found a story contrasting Burian’s brother’s career as an ambulance driver with his own – an artist. Burian tries to figure out how he can justify himself being an artist and how he can make a difference in the world. Kensrue picked up on this and seems to have made it the theme of the album.
Thrice has set out to make a difference in more than just the music world by giving part of their proceeds of each of their albums to charities. This time the proceeds go to the Syrenth J. Savio Endowment, which scans for breast cancer in poorer communities and also helps patients afford chemotherapy treatment if cancer is found.
“The Artist in the Ambulance” is an album full of surprises. As Kensrue screams “They preach to the choir, always in the perfect daylight … they light the world on fire and watch it burn … they never seemed to learn and we pay their price with our blood and our lives.” It becomes apparent that their album is more than sorrow and heartbreak but also filled with political opinions, as illustrated by their anti-war statements in their song “Paper Tigers.”
The soul-rumbling bass of Eddie Breckenridge, the melodic guitar of Teppei Teranishi and Riley Breckenridge’s drum beats give the entire album the soul of old-school-metal fan in the body of a young punk rocker. Thrice has taken typical emo lyrics and married them with heavy metal orchestrations. The lyrics paint an intensely passionate mural about life – about the struggles, the trials, the happiness and the sorrow. Kensrue takes almost every emotion possible and packs them into 12 tracks of poignant beauty. It’s clear that Kensrue has taken a part of his soul and placed it into his music. Kensrue’s passion in his lyrics is cradled and nourished by the band’s energetic compassion for what he has to say.
From “Cold cash and colder hearts” to “Don’t tell and we won’t ask” the band makes it clear by combining strings, hard-core riffs, pop punk melodies and independent muscular drumbeats that this album was clearly an adventure for Thrice to step outside of themselves as musicians. Andy Wallace and Brian McTernan, who mixed and produced the album, brought the instrumental and vocal aspect to a place where the two collide in an impressively brilliant dance.
The album is one that seems to be a soundtrack to late night anger drives, with the windows rolled down in your car, driving to escape the entrapment you may feel in the world.
-kassrobison@cc.usu.edu