Thrice released their new album today and I have to say I like it. Firebreather is obviously to appease all the fans who cried and cried about Vheissu not being hard enough, completely overlooking the fact that the band has moved onto some much more intricate musicianship, which I think is a move for the better.

This album seems to have more electronic elements in it than the previous release, which works sometimes, and sometimes I think it adds very little. I got a chuckle the first time I listened to ‘Night Diving.’ The electric piano sound that exists throughout the song is one of Apple’s loops they ship with Garage Band. Seems a little lazy to me.

The album is two parts of the four part Alchemy Index, with each segment being represented by an element. Listening to the first half of the album, the fire side, you will hear a very different emotion than the later, more subdued, half represented by water. You could also just look at the track titles, its pretty obvious.

I can only guess that the Earth section will feature some sort of acoustic theme, as Dustin, the lead singer, has been doing a lot of solo acoustic recently. Should be interesting to hear a side of Thrice that previously was just acoustic sets of music they had already recorded.

They should be starting their tour as I write this so look for them somewhere close. I saw them a couple years ago in Chicago and they were the show stealer for me.

Listen to the entire album on MySpace

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