Thrice Album: “Identity Crisis”

Thrice is amazing, they are by far my favorate band and in my opinion one of the best in their genre. I first heard the intro to T&C and immediately bought the CD, a decision i've never regretted. They have all the qualities of a good band; good lyrics, good singing and good instrumentals.

The album opens with Identity Crisis, one of the best on the album and an excellent way to open it. Brings you right into the feel of the music, your immediately taken in; swallowed up.

Then in Phoesnix Ignition comes a good acoustic intro, some good lyrics and then into one of the heavier tracks with an excellent bridge in the middle tieing the song together.

In your hands combines some good riffs and harmonies used with the lyrics, well executed to give a great song.

Then To What End is very much the bands emotions towards parts of life, again there are great riffs and lyrics.

Ultra Blue, my second favorate, a truely amazing piece of music. The lyrics combined with supporting guitar is amazing. The guitar on its own is superb, especially in the bridge/solo.

As The Ruin Falls is another heavy song but fits in well with the aura of the other tracks. Leads well into the next track.

The Next Day I wouldn't class as a song but the eye of the storm, a little piece or maybe an interval. With the storm in the background and the soft guitar is quite relaxing and in its own way is an emotion of the band, relaxed and happy.

After that brief interlude we lead back into another of the heaviest tracks, A Torch To End All Torches, the heavy guitar is well placed and gives great effect, alot of thought went into this song and was well worth it. The Next Day lingers on in this track with a calm to it all and well brought back into the song with the heavy guitar.

Unquestioned Answers was a good intro and some great guitar, then topped with good vocals and lyrics.

The second best intro takes place in Under Par, amazing guitar. Then the heavy guitar takes over and helped by the vocals makes an excellent song.

And finally the best song with the best intro, T&C, amazing! Truely something that should be in a musical history book. It is amazing, every part is played perfectly and every element of the song is great with each other. The vocals, the guitar, the everything, there is nothing better that this, i can't think of anything that can top it. Then leads into a climax at the end as the album is brought to an end. The CD could be bought for this one track alone it's so good.

Every song is 10/10, truely amazing and just adds to an amzing album, then Thrice followed this up with two more excellent albums. This is a must buy, if you don't you have a problem and should see a psychiatrist. The best album of the best band.

David

This CD, simply put, is a MUST BUY! I have followed THRICE since the beginning and have owned this CD for over a year. I haven't stopped listening to it. It definitely satisfies. THRICE puts the core in hardcore. Each song bleeds passion and each song cuts right to the soul. Everything about this album leaves me speechless. Still waiting for the next one.

This is an awesome CD. I can't say enough good things about Thrice. They are able to combine hardcore riffs with beautifully composed ballads to create an unheard of sound. The disc opens with the title track, which is one of the best on the album, and continues to rock with tracks like Ultra Blue, which isn't as hard as the rest of the songs on the album but is a great change of pace. The disc concludes with T&C, which is by far the best and most powerful. Overall this is a very good CD, but there is a lot of filler, especially for such a short album. Personally, I thought The Illusion of Safety was a better overall album, but this is still a great buy.

In the past year or so I have become pretty much a die-hard Thrice fan. I went backwards in their catalog and was glad to come into this one eventually, seeing as I initially ignored it (I saw ads for it but never heard anything from the band until circa

.) I kind of regret the fact that I did this, but I thought I was into a different path musically back then as well.

What's incredible is that the release was turned down by many punk labels who criticized that the album was all over the place and directionless. Or more importantly that a band should be either heavy or melodic and such. This is ridiculous in retrospect; even from a mainstream perspective, did that many label people never even hear of the Deftones?

That aside, the songs themselves are great. I would be proud to have a debut album as well made as this. Not really hi-fi, but there's a certain edge in the earlier albums. Even though they were not as ambitious as in later releases, it is very strong for what it is. Recommended for fans of the more hardcore variety of punk. There's a lot of melody injected, so it makes good sense they later covered Minor Threat. There's not a lot similar though past that. In a genre that wallows sometimes in stupidity levels of anguish and such, they always made hopeful music even on here. The opening of "To What End" totally rules, as does the title track, and "Ultra Blue" is one of the catchier songs and possibly my favorite on the album. It seems that "T&C" seems to be a popular favorite, which is a great track as well. In that song it shows that even when the band members were very young that Dustin (along with his effortless passion which is incredible) was still a great lyricist and that Teppei was an accomplished guitarist.

It doesn't get as much recognition as later works, but it isn't bad at all. I suggest it for people who were okay with the next two albums. Arguably still their weakest but only because of what came later.

This is is by far my favorite CD. It is a combination of passionate lyrics and techinicle sound that makes an extremely strong CD. Buy this CD you will not be dissipointed.