Thrice Band • Page 33

Beggars, Deadbolt, Paper Tigers. It's a nice mix.

 

The battle for #3 is fierce and I don't think I am ready to declare a winner. I imagine it will be one of those wars that last generations and at some point the sides won't even remember what it is that they are fighting over. But they will still fight.

But my top two are easy: For Miles and Beggars

 

Srs question: why is paper tigers seemingly a near unanimous choice for top [whatever] thrice song? I've always found it pretty meh

 

Hmm. I haven't gotten that impression at all. I mean, I think "Paper Tigers" is held in pretty high regard for Thrice fans who favor the heavier Thrice sound. And it is also a fun song to see live. But I never got the sense that there was near unanimous support for it as a top Thrice song.

Personally, I don't care for it.

 

I'd say it's because it's probably their heaviest song, sweet bass line and explosive ending.

Edit: Ed's best bass line in all of Thrice.

 

I'm a big fan of heavy thrice but I don't really like paper tigers. Idk. Maybe it's just too much for me

Just the impression I've gotten from this thread and the AP thrice thread

 

Hold Fast Hope > Paper Tigers

 

Honestly for me it depends on the day. It's like that with almost all Thrice tracks though since they are usually 10/10.

 

I like Paper Tigers. It's a good shredder, for sure. However I get my heavy fix from this band elswhere with the Fire EP now.

 

Hold Fast Hope live is a thing to behold, freaking chills throughout

 

My god when Hurricane drops into that heavy part toward the end, I just

 

During Hurricane, every time you hear that thrashing guitar, it sounds like (and I want to think) that Teppei is actually slapping at his guitar instead of standard strumming. If that makes any sense ha.

 

You're both speaking my language.

Hurricane is giving Firebreather a run for its money as my favorite opener.

 

Top 3: Between the End and Where We Lie, That Hideous Strength, Red Telephone
A top 3 is impossible. These would all change by tomorrow, except the first one.

 

Red Telephone is an amazing track.

 

when you want to get your heavy fix you only have 3 songs then lol. If you argue Firebreather, Backdraft and Burn the Fleet are heavy, that's still only 6 songs.

 

Messenger and The Flame Deluge are their their best heavy tracks by farrr

Earth Will Shake, Arsonist, Fire Breather, and Death From Above are also good

 

By farrr? Killing Moon, Silhouette, Earth Will Shake, Hold Fast Hope and Awake and Avenge are looking at you.

 

So is That Hideous Strength.

 

I always overlook that song because its a b-side, but it's a goodie.

 

by farrr those are booboo

 

The Earth Will Shake, For Miles, and Daedalus are their best songs.

I'm a weird Thrice fan though. I mostly only like their experimental/fusion stuff. Artist in the Ambulance is a mediocre record and while I think Beggars is more mature on the other side of their experimentation nothing about it really grabs me. I was surprised how much I like To be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere.

Im still on the fence on some things. At first I hated the singles because they were too predictable, especially Black Honey. But hearing them in context, you realize they're just small meanings in a strong overall message that Dustin is getting across and they're actually the worst songs on the record that require the least of your attention. While the rest of the record certainly redeems it and makes you more willing to listen to 2 minutes of Dustin making an allegory for American gluttony over the same two chords... it's also not something I agree with as a musician myself, putting two cash grab songs on the record just because you know they'll attract attention, personally I like the idea of making every song amazing and totally unique in some way (hence why I'm a huge Alchemy Index and Vheissu fan, very little pop filler on either record.)

It just doesn't fit that most of these songs are getting really layered and complex with the different levels of volume and dark, unique chord progressions (lot of it reminds me of Thursday actually) but then you have two extremely obvious "singles" that stick out like a sore thumb. That's when Thrice has just been a band for 15 years and now has a good idea how to do the business-model part of their job... I just like music that is really different, but so well done that it doesn't have to be structured a certain way to make people love it. So my only gripe with the record is the ways in which the marketing is cliche when the whole record could have been unique.

Another weird thing - if I'm judging these songs strictly on lyrical value alone, it's certainly nowhere close to what Dustin is capable of. But this is a scenario where Teppei, from the mixing desk, took every word in the lyrics and made the music revolve around and match the mood of those lyrics. The production is so well coordinated. And he did an impeccable job contrasting the thick, loud, scooped guitar tones in the heavy parts with multiple different softer guitar sounds, I feel like it's just an extremely dynamic record that was pushed to its creative limits with the production. Basically I don't necessarily LOVE the songwriting as much as I LOVE just how thick and well developed the record sounds and how the climaxes hit you.

 

what a great post, @Randall Mentzos. I fully agree with you regarding the production on the record and the fact that it's one of the weaker effort in terms of Dustin's lyricism. That said, I do love Black Honey, still, but yeah, the singles are a bit basic.

 

I don't feel compelled to come back to much of this album at all unfortunately

 

I am a huge fan of this album.

People will grow to like it. Beggars had a lot of the same criticism if I recall correctly. Now I see a lot of people like it.