Band : Thrice

Album title : The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV – Air & Earth

Label : Vagrant/ Hassle

Distributor : PIAS

Release date : 15/04/2008

Release : Double digipak

No need to give you any comprehensive history of the band, as I already did that with the band's release of The Alchemy Index, Vols. I & II: Fire And Water (release: Oct. 16, 2007, review posted 15/11).

(the following info taken/ reworked from Wikipedia ) Originally, Thrice intended for The Alchemy Index to be released at once, with the 4 mini-CDs representing the four elements. Leading to the release of the second double mini-CD package including Vols. III & IV of the project, the band already played the song "Come All You Weary" (off the Earth CD) on their short tour leading up to Bamboozle , and videos of the performance were subsequently posted on YouTube . According to the band, the studio recording of the song is the only one from the Earth album which has a full drum kit or any instrument that isn't acoustic. Still, Earth has a prevalent acoustic calmness about it spread over most of the six songs on it. Thrice put up a blog titled The Alchemy Index (alchemyindex.com) on the Internet chronicling the album's recording process for the band, and it's there that clips for the songs "Broken Lungs" , "Silver Wings" (these first two off "Air" ), "Moving Mountains" and "Come All You Weary" (from Earth ) were featured in studio video footage prior to the release of even the first half of The Alchemy Index (the videos can still be found on YouTube and MySpace . Also, both "Broken Lungs" and "Moving Mountains" have already been played live, and recorded to video (can be found in a number of YouTube videos). Listen to mp3-files for "Broken Lungs" , Moving Mountains" , and "Come You Weary" (plus 3 tracks off the first volumes of The Alchemy Index ) at myspace.com/thrice.

I have to say, these three songs will not give you the full musical extend to which the band is capable. A track like "Digging My Own Grave" for instance, sees guitarist Teppei Teranishi also playing some beautiful piano, and keyboards with a sound which floats between accordeon and saxophone...very weird indeed! What with Thrice 's experimental take on Alternative & Acoustic Rock, the complete The Alchemy Index is a delight to be played at a hot Summer night while the family is sitting on the porch with a cool drink in their hands, slumped back in their lazy chairs. Just be sure you programmed the multi-disc cd-player to play àll discs in a row, or someone will have to get up every 20 minutes or so!

As far as this conclusion of The Alchemy Index goes, I have to admit that at first I was ever so slightly disappointed with the overall acoustic feel of Earth , but once I relaxed my mind to it, I truly fell for the band's somewhat peculiar take on things, and I became able to ejoy everything to the fullest...with as a result that I now feel Vols. III & IV are absolutely competitive with the first parts of The Alchemy Index . The end comclusion therefore, is evidently that thís part of The Alchemy Index gets into that "Best Albums Of 2008"-list of mine!

98/100

Tony.