Southern California hard rockers Thrice plan to release the follow-up to their major-label debut, 2003's The Artist in the Ambulance, this fall. After spending the summer writing, the Orange County fourpiece recently entered a studio to record the as-yet-untitled release.

According to frontman Dustin Kensrue the new material is expected to head in a more atmospheric direction. "Our tastes have changed a lot," he said. "[On our last record] our influences were ahead of where we were playing and we're trying to catch that up. We're trying to capture stuff that's a little more cinematic, where the stuff going on in the instruments is evoking different emotions and there's a push and pull with attention."

Kensrue said Thrice have over a dozen tracks prepped for the record, which is also expected to incorporate a wider range of instrumentation. "There will still be screaming and heavy stuff, but it's going to be a lot less [of a] metal vibe," Kensrue said. "There will probably be some strings and horns. We're trying to pull from a lot of different places. We like jazz a lot, so we'll pull some from that, and [from] bands like Talk Talk's later stuff."

Before wrapping up the record, Thrice will release the DVD If We Could Only See Us Now, on March 29th. The film chronicles the history of the Irvine outfit over the last six years.