The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II

The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II: Fire & Water
Studio album by Thrice
Released	October 16, 2007
Recorded	October 2006 - March 2007
Genre	Post-hardcore, melodic hardcore (Vol. I) Trip hop, experimental rock, alternative rock, electronic (Vol. II)
Length	Fire: 22:09 Water: 27:05 Total: 49:14
Label	Vagrant
Thrice chronology
Red Sky (EP) (2006)Red Sky (EP)2006 The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II (2007) The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV (2008)The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV2008

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk.net	(93%) [1]
Allmusic	[2]
Alternative Press	[3]
Melodic	[4]
NME	6/10 [5]

The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II is Thrice's fifth studio album. It consists of the first two volumes of The Alchemy Index, a four-disc concept album that was split between two releases, the first in October 2007 and the second in April 2008. The band originally planned to release four discs at once, each disc with six tracks representing one of the four classical elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The album was recorded from late 2006 to early 2007, and a blog titled The Alchemy Index chronicled the album's progress for fans.

Recording

Early in the development of the project, Dustin Kensrue posted the following update on the band's studio journal site:

"We sat down a couple weeks ago and made a rough timeline so that we wouldn’t find ourselves putting this out next winter instead of late spring/early summer. The plan is to record at least 75% of each disc at a time, and then have time to come back and re-evaluate, start mixing, and tie up any loose ends. Right now we have done a large amount of the Air disc and have just started up on Earth, which we’ve given ourselves only to the end of next week since we want it to have a pretty stripped down vibe and we don’t want to have time to over- think it. We moved the recording gear into an empty living room with hardwood floors and are recording the whole earth disc in here which is sounding very cool."

During the recording of the album, the band left Island Records, citing a difference in vision for the band's direction.^[6] On August 9, 2007, the band announced they had signed to Vagrant Records.^[7]

The band debuted a new track from the 'Fire' album and from the 'Earth' album during the mini-tour leading up to 2007 Bamboozle music festival. The titles of the tracks were later revealed as "Firebreather" and "Come All You Weary" respectively.

Release

The album was released in the United States on October 16, 2007, and sold 28,000 copies in its first week. It debuted at #24 on the Billboard 200 chart^[8] and #5 on the iTunes top-selling albums.^[9]

"The Arsonist" was made available for download on March 6, 2008 as part of the Modern Metal Track Pack for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Track listing

Vol I: Fire

Vol II: Water

Band members

• Dustin Kensrue - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Teppei Teranishi - lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Eddie Breckenridge - bass, backing vocals
• Riley Breckenridge - drums

Recording personnel

• Produced – Thrice and Teppei Teranishi
• Engineered and Mixed - Teppei Teranishi
• Mastering – Howie Weinberg at MasterDisk

References