#NewMusic: Thrice are finally back
After a long wait, Thrice are finally back. Their ninth studio album, To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere, will be released in just a couple of days. I could’ve waited, but I couldn’t help myself. One of the best rock bands of our generation are making a comeback.
Ok, so, if you haven’t yet figured it out on your own, I’m a huge Thrice fan. I traveled 2,500 kilometers to watch what I thought was their last show, in California. Then, in 2015, Thrice started playing live again. And then announced plans for a new album. To say that I was happy about the news is an understatement. And now, the wait is over.
To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere will be officially released this Friday, May 27. Three tracks have already been released in advance: Death From Above, Black Honey, and Blood On The Sand. A quick listen at these three very different tracks showcases three different phases in the band’s sound. Death From Above reminisces The Alchemy Index (2007, 2008) years, Black Honey is closer to the Major/Minor(2011) sound, and Blood On The Sand takes us all the way back to Vheissu (2005) and The Artist In The Ambulance (2003).
Having not heard the rest of the album, I can only say that, if anything, the hiatus helped them to take a step away and assess their work from a distance, only to come back stronger and more determined. There’s a kind of phoenix energy, as if they’ve returned younger, and wiser.
Vocalist/guitarist Dustin Kensrue‘s songs are honest, yet political and sprayed with a very punk rock, defiant ideology. Songs of God, war, and Edward Snowden. Lead guitarist Teppei Teranishi is, as usual, a master of atmosphere and composition. Drummer Riley Breckenridge brought a new found energy after his experiment with grindcore in Puig Destroyer, and brother Ed Breckenridge (bass) is right on spot to give passages substance and weight.
Dustin Kensrue said in their farewell blog post: ‘If nothing has broken us up by now, I doubt anything ever could’. Guys, do whatever you need to be with your families. We only ask that the good music keeps on flowing.
Catch them on tour.
