The Alchemy Index Vols. I and II: Fire and Water : Thrice : Review : Rolling Stone

This California angst-metal band's first release for the label that emo built is half-a-concept record: a pair of EP-length suites inspired by two of the four elements, with a second disc of earth and wind songs coming next spring. It is a weirdly hesitant way to exercise prog-rock license, like getting Yes' Tales From Topographic Oceans in installments. Thrice also define fire and water music too literally. "Firebreather" and "Backdraft" are all blaze, with singer-guitarist Dustin Kensrue's agonized howl consumed by Teppei Teranishi's spires of guitar, while the ghost-ship ambience and goth-surfer harmonies of "The Whaler" sound like Depeche Mode marooned with the Beach Boys. More intriguing are the songs where those divisions break down -- the mix of uneasy chantey and fuzz-pedal arson in "Burn the Fleet" and the scalding eruptions in the instrumental "Night Diving." There may be a unifying resolution to this enterprise on the next CD. But the cleaving of The Alchemy Index into awkward chunks of opera violates a fundamental rule of prog rock: Go all the way out, or don't go at all.