Thrice
Beggars
Vagrant Records

When discussion arises on the most influential bands on the last ten years of modern rock music, Thrice is and should always be somewhere in the discussion. The band have both struggled and triumphed since their prophetic and strangely titled debut “Identity Crisis” in 2000. Since then, the band have endured the classic battle that so many bands face; growing and progressing as musicians while trying to maintain a solidified fan base.

It’s not an easy thing to do, considering the architecture of a musical landscape today, where chug chug riffage, auto-tuned lifeless vocals and bad haircuts are a mainstay in many of their predecessors catalogs. It seems that many of their fans would be content with a continual carbon copy of “The Artist In The Ambulance”. However, with the band’s sixth proper full-length (or seventh, depending on how you count The Alchemy Index) , Thrice had different and better plans, bringing forth ‘Beggars’, the album that could very easily go down as the best release of their careers.

Beggars is not the most intricate record, nor the most experimental release in Thrice’s impressive discography. However, the solidified composition and reserved greatness in every song on the album makes it easy to listen to and nearly impossible to forget. The masterful musicianship displayed by guitarist Teppei Teranishi is perfectly balanced in every aspect, lending way for the Breckenridge brother’s flawless percussion section. Combined, it’s hard to think of a time when Thrice songwriting prowess was more evident than now.

The album opener “All The World Is Mad” is a raucous introduction with a chunky distortion-layered bass leading way for Kensrue’s introspections on an inherently evil society. The one-two punch combo of this and follow-up track “The Weight” combine for the musically hardest moments on Beggars. It is immediately apparent in these songs that Kensrue has found his voice, and is at the top of his game both lyrically and vocally.

Kensrue has never been one to hide his Christian faith, and as with much of Thrice’s earlier material, it is put center-stage throughout most, if not all of Beggars. While Kensrue touches on issues that are relevant world-wide, he doesn’t preach for one second. Instead he let’s his impeccable storytelling do the talking, revealing hard-hitting truths about a “world gone mad”.

On album standout “Doublespeak” Kensrue laments the denial of the poor’s suffering while the rich prosper. Meanwhile the cold barren keys of “Wood and Wire” tell the tale of an innocent man on his way to face the death-penalty for “for a crime of which I’m innocent”, quietly referencing the death of the bible’s Jesus Christ. The allusions to the bible do not end there. On “The Great Exchange” Kensrue alludes to it, similarly as he tells the story of a sailor who takes part in a mutiny of his ship and sentences his captain to die. The ship later sinks and as the sailor is ready to be drowned by the sea, his mutinied captain reaches out his hand to save him, only to be drowned himself in the heroic act.

This kind of emotionally draining storytelling leads way to the album’s finale which is arguably the best song Thrice have penned to date. The album title track starts off with demure guitar and drums, and slowly builds into a grooving coda. In the book of Psalms of the modern bible, it references the tongue as a sharp sword. I can’t help but think of any other way to describe the song lyrically as Kensrue quietly takes shots at the rich politicians and corrupt businessmen of the world. However, he is not immune to the criticism, and he is fully aware as he sorrowfully repines

“If there’s one thing I know in this world, we are beggars, all.”

While Beggars contains some of the most lyrically complex themes that the band have written to date, it still retains it’s listenability by being up front and incredibly personal in the delivery of it’s arrangements. All of the band seem to have come together, hitting stride in perfect harmony. The result is the album of Thrice’s career, one that can be enjoyed equally by the die-hard fans still headbanging to the breakdown in ‘Paper Tigers’ and the intent listener, content with growing with the band as they better themselves on each release.

mp3:: thrice – beggars
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