Thrice's 'Vheissu,' the Album That Changed It All, Turns 10
Dustin Kensrue was once a grizzly bear; he could murmur and purr, but he was never far from destroying the air with a roar. His band, Thrice, played titanium steel riffs and served up enough breakdowns to get the scene kids two-stepping and the burly straight-edges picking up quarters on the hardcore-dance floor.
That lasted for three albums, culminating in the Irvine, California four-piece's breakout LP, 2003's The Artist in the Ambulance. It was and has stayed a post-hardcore landmark, one that coasted into the lanes of math-metal and, yes, even pop-punk just enough to appeal to a rainbow of fans. Thrice could support an emo act one tour and headline over a hardcore cult band the next. Their palm-muted gallops tickled Slayer bones; their octave power chords sucked in Saves the Day groupies.
October 18, 2005, it all changed. Thrice dropped Vheissu and evolved, not in a gradual, thousands-of-years-from-ape-to-man way, but instantly, like a Pokémon.
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