The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV

The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV: Air & Earth
Studio album by Thrice
Released April 15, 2008
Genre
Length
  • Air: 24:14
  • Earth: 20:54
  • Total: 45:16
Label Vagrant
Producer Thrice
Thrice chronology
The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II
(2007)The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II2007		 The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV
(2008)		 Live at the House of Blues
(2008)Live at the House of Blues2008
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AbsolutePunk.net(90%) [1]
Alternative Press
Melodic [2]
Stereokill.net [3]
The Tune(A) [4]

The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV: Air & Earth is the sixth studio album by American rock band Thrice. It consists of the final two volumes of The Alchemy Index, a four-disc concept album that was split between two releases, the first in October 2007 and the second in April 2008. The band originally planned to release four discs at once, each disc with six tracks representing one of the four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. A blog titled The Alchemy Index chronicled the album's progress for fans. The artwork for the album was designed by Dustin Kensrue.

The album debuted at #17 on the Billboard 200.[5]

Release

The first half, The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II: Fire & Water, was released on October 16, 2007. The band debuted "Come All You Weary" from the Earth disc during the short tour leading up to Bamboozle. Videos of the performance can be found on YouTube.[6][7] According to the band, this song is the only song from the Earth disc that has a full drum kit or any instrument that isn't acoustic. A version of the song professionally recorded by AOL can be found here. Clips from the songs "Broken Lungs," "Silver Wings," "Moving Mountains," and "Come All You Weary" were featured in studio videos released by the band before the release of the first half of The Alchemy Index. These videos can be found on YouTube and MySpace, respectively.

Additionally, the songs "Broken Lungs" and "Moving Mountains" made their live debut and can be found in a number of YouTube videos. On March 25, the Radio One Rock Show debuted "Daedalus" from the Air disc. "Daedalus" is the second song released by Thrice with lyrics about the legend of Daedalus, the other being "The Melting Point of Wax" from their 2003 album The Artist in the Ambulance. March 28 saw the debut of the studio version of "Broken Lungs" on the band's Myspace page. "The Sky Is Falling" was played on the Radio One Punk Show on April 8. The second half of The Alchemy Index was released on April 15. In October and November, the band supported Rise Against on their headlining tour of the US.[8]

Influences

According to a ten-part YouTube miniseries on the creation of The Alchemy Index, Thrice vocalist Dustin Kensrue cites artists he was listening to at the time as inspiration for his songwriting that ended up on Air. These artists include Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Rós, and The Mercury Program.[9] Such musical influences can be heard in the post-chorus breakdown in "Broken Lungs", which contains light, tappy guitar riffs and bright percussive instruments, a sound that defines The Mercury Program.

From the same series, the band describes Earth as being influenced by folk music, "bluesy stuff", "jazzy stuff", and classical music. The band recorded the album in a wooden room to capture a specific type of reverb that emphasized the performance aspect of the sound of the album.[10]

Track listing

Vol III: Air

No.TitleLength
1."Broken Lungs"4:14
2."The Sky is Falling"4:21
3."A Song for Milly Michaelson"5:07
4."Daedalus"6:00
5."As the Crow Flies"2:22
6."Silver Wings"2:10

Vol IV: Earth

No.TitleLength
1."Moving Mountains"2:55
2."Digging My Own Grave"3:04
3."The Earth Isn't Humming" (Frodus cover)4:58
4."The Lion and the Wolf"2:42
5."Come All You Weary"4:08
6."Child of Dust"3:09

Personnel

Thrice
Additional musicians
  • Donia Lee - Additional Vocals on "Digging My Own Grave"
  • Aushua, Nick Bogardus, Brent Kredel, and Brett Williams - Backing Vocals on "Child of Dust"
Recording personnel
  • Produced – Thrice and Teppei Teranishi
  • Engineered and Mixed - Teppei Teranishi
  • Mastering – Howie Weinberg at MasterDisk

References

  1. ↑ Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV: Air & Earth - Album Review - AbsolutePunk.net
  2. ↑ Spinelli, Tom (March 29, 2008). "Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV". Melodic. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  3. ↑ Thrice – "The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV" | stereokill.net Archived 2012-07-30 at Archive.is
  4. ↑ Thrice - The Alchemy Index, Vol's 1-4 (2007/2008) ~ The Tune
  5. ↑ Mariah Debuts At No. 1 After Monster First Week
  6. ↑ "Come All You Weary" live at Bamboozle (Version 1) on YouTube. Last accessed September 26, 2007.
  7. ↑ "Come All You Weary" live at Bamboozle (Version 2) on YouTube. Last accessed September 26, 2007.
  8. ↑ "Rise Against announce fall tour routing". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. July 28, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  9. ↑ alchemyindex (2007-10-24), THE ALCHEMY INDEX (6/10), retrieved 2017-11-08
  10. ↑ alchemyindex (2007-10-24), THE ALCHEMY INDEX (5/10), retrieved 2017-11-08
  • Alchemy Index - Thrice's studio blog documenting the recording process of the album.
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