Thrice is a four-piece that continually attempts to reinvent themselves through different genres.

Their early career latched onto metal, then moving on to post-punk hardcore, with their latest reinvention moving forward with the Alchemy Index to break new ground in experimental hardcore.

Their idea is doing four EP releases that eventually evolved into a 4 volume double album that encompasses the four elements. This being the first half of the release entitled Fire & Water, to be followed by Volume III & IV: Earth & Air already announced to be released in April 2008.

They’ve since parted ways with their label Island Records and signed on with Vagrant, to release this progressive hardcore album reminiscent of Coheed and Cambria’s similar attempts to chronicle a musical journey.

Instead of anything this grand, Thrice have gone the elemental route and labelled all tracks on each volume with suitable monikers: Backdraft on Fire & Night Diving on Water, although this can come across far too literal in its meanings at times.

The first volume, Fire, predominantly projects a heavy hardcore metal sound that starts to reverberate with its opener Firebreather. Deeper, and far more epic vocals highlight the difference that may distance fans from their earlier releases.

Instead of just knocking out atypical punk riffs to satisfy the listener, it seems more about the emotion of the music that they can convey. From the get go, Dustin Kensrue’s vocals appear eerily similar to that of Biffy Clyro front man Neil Simon. As it moves forwards, it surfaces more experimentation with drum machines and OTT vocal distortion, frantic riffs, and multiple vocals duties split between lead Dustin and other members of the band to make their voices appear more prominent than before.

In the second volume, Water, they touch on latter day Brian Wilson style vocals over very processed based electronica.

Although this doesn’t last for long as the introduction ends and leads into the Jimmy Eat World inspired romanticised melody of Open Water, leading the example on piano based accompaniments that filter through the rest of this side of the album, sometimes lulling you into a false sense of security, but always relaxing enough to forget that you’re actually listening to a Thrice album.

The combination of sounds prove that they are moving forward, trying to evolve beyond their post-hardcore roots and proving that it is better for a band to change rather than knock out the same music year after year.