If there’s one band who I’ve truly grown up with throughout the course of my life, enjoying every single one of their permutations and watching as their sonic evolution mirrored that of my own tastes, it is undoubtedly Thrice. Their career is one of epic scope, from their early SoCal skate punk meets Bay Area thrash meets pop punk sound that can be found on Identity Crisis, to their brutally heavy melodic hardcore masterpiece The Artist In The Ambulance, to the alternative rock revolution found within Vheissu, to the experimental bonafides of The Alchemy Index that took inspiration from each of the four elements (wind, water, fire, earth) to create an artistic landmark, to the more recent grunge focused direction of To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere. Every step of the way they have constantly pushed themselves to reach new heights and explore different versions of themselves as a cohesive singularity.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that they have remained a core quartet with no lineup changes throughout their entire existence (Dustin Kensrue and Teppei Teranishi were high school friends before recruiting brothers Eddie Breckenridge and Riley Breckenridge to the band in their late teens). At the risk of being overtly sentimental, Thrice has been a steady guiding force in my own life through their creative output– their ability to transform into new skin while still remaining committed to their core principles in their pursuit of progress is admirable. Every Thrice album has a distinctly different sonic direction. And every single Thrice album sounds uniform. To do so in one fell swoop is an incredible accomplishment.
Their debut album Identity Crisis was released when I was in eighth grade. I first heard the title track off a punk compilation CD which I can’t remember the name of, but I’ll never forget how that song made me feel when I first heard it– like I was ten feet tall. From the opening riff, muffled and distorted, that precedes a quick guitar slide that sends the whole band into high-octane drive, to the intro riff callback in the chorus that ping-pongs with Dustin Kensrue’s throaty yells, to the serene second verse, to the absolute howitzer of an outro that features Teppei shredding in all of his glory, it was the exact song I needed to hear at that exact moment in my life. It was a call to arms, a realization that individuality was to be celebrated and enjoyed, and that the taxing journey on the way to find your purpose was a noble crusade to take.
I still feel that way when I listen to Thrice in all their forms. It was a perfect introduction to a band that would come along this wild ride of life alongside me. They’re one of my all-time greats.
Standout Songs: “Identity Crisis”, “Phoenix Ignition”, “Ultra Blue”, “As The Ruin Falls”, “In Your Hands”, “A Torch To End All Torches”
