Flashback Review: Thrice - The Illusion of Safety

For today's flashback review, we take a look back at the sophomore album from the recently disbanded hardcore band Thrice. Their second effort was a perfect mix of hardcore and punk rhythms and was a glimpse into a band that was just starting to find themselves as musicians, and quickly became one of my favorite groups to this day.

The disc starts off with "Kill Me Quickly", a melodic mixture of hardcore and punk that shows off the still developing lead vocals of Dustin Kensrue, who adds a great deal of emotion and intensity to every single Thrice song that you can feel like if you were experiencing it right as they were recording it in the studio. "A Subtle Dagger" is a fast-moving, punk barrage that clocks in at just under 2 minutes that is an awesome and gritty punk breakdown that is no holds barred and takes no punches right from the get-go, a truly remarkable track from start to finish. My favorite song from this album is "See You in the Shadows", an incredible balance of hardcore and punk influences that is a perfect example of a band willing to merge two genres and feels the urge to go the extra mile to make an impression on its listeners, a masterful track from beginning to end. "Deadbolt" is probably one of the most well known tracks in Thrice's catalog, and was heavily requested at most of their past concerts, a mid-tempo rocker that provides for a certain amount of diversity on this album.  "In Years to Come" features Dustin's amazing and melodic vocal power pouring through every crevice of the song with remarkable precision that it leaves no holes to fill whatsoever.

The disc's second half gets underway with "A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds", a song that takes a slight detour from the intense melodic hardcore, but still maintains a strong musical ethos that permeates the entire track. "Where Idols Once Stood" starts off with an amazing and gritty drum solo courtesy of drummer Riley Breckenridge that fills the entire track with a certain heartbeat that powers all the instruments together and they work in conjunction with one another to create a gritty and powerful hardcore anthem. The disc gets ready to close out in the waning tracks with "To Awake and Avenge The Dead", a diverse, musically technical track that gets down right into the center of melodic hardcore with a song that pulls in every ounce of strength from the kinship of all the band members to create a sonic ear blast that is unlike anything ever heard before. The energy is brought down a notch on "So Strange I Remember You", but the song still packs a melodic punch and still retains the emotional intensity of the prior tracks. "The Beltsville Crucible" closes it all out with a mid-tempo sonic boom that reflects on the album as a whole and all the musical wonders that we've encountered along the way. Thrice have always been one of my favorite bands because they weren't afraid to experiment with different sound and genres, especially hardcore and punk and are probably some of the most musically skilled musicians I've ever heard. All musicians interpret songs different ways and have a different skill set that they obtained from their education, but Thrice always have and always will be the masters of music technicality.

All in all, a master work from Thrice, from their debut Identity Crisis to their final studio effort as a band, Major/Minor are a band that are experts in the craft and will always be looked at as pioneers within their respective genre.

                                                                                                                            Album Score: 5/5

Track Listing:

1. Kill Me Quickly
2. A Subtle Dagger
3. See You in the Shallows
4. Betrayal Is A Symptom
5. Deadbolt
6. In Years To Come
7. The Red Death
8. A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds
9. Where Idols Once Stood
10. Trust
11. To Awake and Avenge the Dead
12. So Strange I Remember You
13. The Beltsville Crucible