Thrice Band • Page 18

I had heard other songs of theirs before, but a friend (and @Jason Tate's review) convinced me to get Vheissu and the rest is history.

 

While living in the UAE in 2002, I found a battered-looking CD-RW in my middle school's lost and found and took it because it had "The Illusion of Safety" written on it. I was the last kid you'd expect to take something that wasn't mine, but it sounded rad and I was way too curious. That kicked off a 15 year obsession with the band that hasn't diminished. Still wish I knew who to thank for that unexpected gift, though!

 

I listened to a girlfriend's copy of Vheissu and For Miles hooked me to keep listening. I back tracked and became casual fan of everything before. Alchemy Index came out shortly after and saw them live opening for Brand New touring Fire/Water. Their set was perfect for a first timer and for how short it was:

1. Firebreather
2. Stare at the Sun
3. Of Dust and Nations
4. Digital Sea
5. The Messenger
6. The Whaler
7. The Artist in the Ambulance
8. Red Sky
9. Silhouette
10. For Miles
11. Deadbolt
12. The Earth Will Shake

Them killing it live on top of me hearing Vheissu and then Alchemy back to back set them in stone as my favorite. Have not been disappointed since.

 

Kind of a long story, but I'll try to keep it short.

In High School, I had 3 favorite bands. Linkin Park, Blink-182, and Story of the Year. There were some other bands in my rotation, but those were my go to bands. SSX3 (snowboarding game) came out and I played it to death on my GameCube. It had shortened versions of Stare at the Sun (Thrice, obviously) and Way Away (Yellowcard) on it, and I loved both songs. My friend Adam told me if I liked those songs, I should listen to their respective albums because they were amazing. I got a copy of Artist from him and promptly put it in my collection, only listening to it.... once, maybe twice. It sounded very "generic" to me (oh boy how badly I want to go slap my 14 year old self right now hahaha)

A few years later that same friend was getting SUPER hyped for The Alchemy Index Fire/Water, which was about to release. He told me I should try getting into them again since I had expanded my tastes a bit "but stay away from Vheissu, it was garbage." Ironically, him saying that was literally the only reason I listened to it, because I wanted to "prove" that I had "better" musical taste than he did. I listened to Vheissu and enjoyed it. My favorite track was Between The End and Where We Lie.

Around the same time-if I remember correctly-is when Brand New released TDAGARIM, which I really disliked upon release (once again, I would love to go slap my 16-17 year old self right now....) awhile after this, Brand New came on tour to my city, with Thrice (promoting Fire/Water) as the opening band.

I left that night for a Brand New concert, and I came home from a Thrice concert. They blew every expectation and understanding of how great a band could be live out of the water. I didn't even like Brand New's performance. It was 95% TDAG, but I couldn't even be mad because of how good Thrice was.

THAT was when I dropped everything and started listening to Thrice like a madman. At first I would just put Vheissu and Fire/Water on repeat, but gradually every 6 months or so I would add another (new, or old) album into my rotation until they eventually became my favorite band ever.

So that's how I got into Thrice, haha.

 

@ShinyZeni I'm assuming they hated Alchemy as well?

 

Ironically he absolutely loved Alchemy... I called him out on it and then he said "oh yeah I like Vheissu now. My tastes have grown"

 

Do people rate Beggars highly? I like it, has some great songs but probably their weakest album for me with the exception of Identity Crisis. Thought most people agreed, may be wrong haha

 

Beggars is my absolute favorite.

In my mind, it's a flawless album.

 

I found my brother's copy of TAITA and that pretty much got me into "heavy" music

I think most people consider Beggars (at least tied with Vheissu for) their best

 

Beggars is my third favorite.

 

Beggars is hit or miss for me. "The Weight," "In Exile," "Beggars," are big hits though

 

I think the majority of people think it's one of their best. I agree with you, but it's still a great album. That's the thing with a band who has all amazing albums, even your lest favorite is still great.

 

Beggars is so good that it makes Major Minor seem worse than it actually is.

 

I've always wondered whose idea it was for Thrice, whilst on a major label, to release 4 EP's based on elements. I've always respected their ideas of doing what feels right no matter what point of their career but I can understand the labels frustration after three albums full of pop melodies and then two of their most difficult albums whilst signed to the major.

 

Beggars is also near the bottom of my list, but that's not because I don't think it's amazing... I do. I also know lots of people here (or at least the absolutepunk community) strongly disagree with that though and consider it their best work. My biggest gripe with it has always been the production quality on it. I really don't like how "raw" so much of it sounds, which I know a lot of others like. That's probably why my favorite tracks on it are ATWIM, Circles, At The Last, and The Great Exchange, though.

As far as "who's decision" it was to do the EPs, I think it was a band decision. They've talked about it at length in a few interviews over the years and none of them really "blame" the label for dropping them. If anything they have expressed gratitude that the label let them keep all the songs. I don't really understand what you meant about "three albums full of pop melodies" though. IC, IoS, especially, but even TAITA leaned far more heavily towards "post-hardcore" than "pop melodies". Just my opinion.

 

My introduction to Thrice was the Warped 2003 compilation, which had "Under a Killing Moon" on it. I've been hooked ever since.

 

It was Punk Goes Acoustic Vol. 1 for me. My sister also had a MP3 of Dustin playing Artist acoustic and I was really digging that.

I knew some of their big songs, but I didn't start getting into their full albums until maybe 2011.

 

My introduction: In 9th grade all I could really play was Blink songs and any pop punk type stuff on guitar. My friend came over with Artist and tuned his top string down to drop tuning and blew my mind with his shredding capabilities. I learned the entire record in a week or so. I remember I had detention at school and read all of the liner notes from the copy of Artist my friend lent me and knew I was going to be a life long fan by how much detail and care they put into the packaging of that album.

 

The Singles from that era where Deadbolt, Stare at the Sun and All That's Left. I'd say those aren't too heavy and pretty catchy. I think the point he was trying to make was that really nothing after TAITA had that feel and from the labels POV it was probably hard to market.

 

A friend of mine gave to me TAITA as a birthday present in the end of 2003. I loved that cd so much! I saw Thrice in Milan some months later. It was a killer show. They played, for example, Eclipse!!! Amazing setlist!

 

Yeah, that makes sense I guess. I wasn't saying that there wasn't ANYTHING poppy on those albums, they just definitely weren't "full" of them in my opinion haha.

 

Got into them in 8tg grade when I went to see Thursday and Thrice was the co headliner. Coheed opened

 

My introduction to Thrice was buying Beggars at Target in the fall of 2009 in my senior year of high school because I had heard great things about the band and that album. I wasn't into it at the time though.

Then this girl I had a crush on made me a mix CD of songs from Dance Gavin Dance, A Skylit Drive, and Thrice. There was an error with the CD and it wouldn't upload anything past track four so I had two DGD songs, one ASD song, and the acoustic version of Trust. Didn't care for DGD or ASD, but I fell madly in love with Trust so much so that I went to my nearest FYE and bought TAITA, Vheissu, and Fire/Water. Beggars ended up clicking with me and it has been my favorite Thrice album for years and is one of my favorite albums of all time. The rest is history.

On a side note, I absolutely love playing drums along to Thrice. Riley has been one of my biggest influences and I just have so much fun playing along to Thrice. He has a great style and taste for grooves, particularly from The Alchemy Index onward. Tonight I played Broken Lungs, At The Last, In Exile, The Arsonist, Words In The Water, and Of Dust And Nations. Great time.

 

Got into Thrice when Illusion of Safety was out. I downloaded some songs on Napster and threw them on my mix CDs. I was sold. So when Artist came out I went and bought it the first week.