I'm gonna admit my shame, when I first heard Vheissu I wasn't that into it, kind of disappointed actually, really loved "Of Dust and Nations", and that was about it. I revisited it a few months later and it absolutely floored me, now it's one of my favorites in their 20 year history, Beggars being first, Vheissu second, and then Alchemy Index.
Of Dust and Nations was the song that took me longest to get into. I guess I wasn’t a fan of huge choruses and epic, intricate guitar lines that burrow straight into your soul.
Hell, I remember when the album art for Vheissu was revealed. My friends and I were all like "this is going to be epic!" Just the cover alone hyped high school me.
I almost wrote a music theory essay on why vheissu sounds so epic. “Vheissu and the Harmonic Minor Scale” Would anyone want to read that?
For all the flak you get you get, no one mentions how loosely you throw around Metallica's name lol. Thrice is my favorite band but lets get real, there will be no next Metallica sadly.
I would like to read every academic paper/treatise/thesis/review about Vheissu from chorus dot fm members please
it will take time but maybe I'll try to put something together. The tricky thing would be making people interested in it that don't know what the hell harmonic minor is lol. It's on every or almost every song on the record. whats impressive is they use it in different functions throughout the album.. whether its to create a mysterious part, make something sound BIG and Epic, Dark, or even in the form of Minor Blues..It would be cool to dive into, but it would also require a lot of time.
The point was less about Metallica and more about a heavy, aggressive band that had potential to cross over into the mainstream. The two sounds are unique, obviously. At the time though, Teppei still wore his Metallica and Pantera influences on his sleeve. Plus, Teppei is such a virtuoso that Hammett/Metallica comparisons were definitely made. Kirk is a completely different style of player obviously, but the fact that Thrice had/has a bonafide lead guitarist was more than most heavy bands of that era could say.
Oh I know, I was just messin around I figured my last 150+ posts would give some light into that lol How awesome would it be if in at least one track, they let Teppei cut loose with a Hammett style solo. I know it's not their style, but damn would it be cool!
I can only answer this personally, I think Vheissu is a better album, but I enjoy listening to Beggars more. That is why Beggars is my favorite, but I can recognize it isn't their best work. Dunno if that makes sense haha
They need to have more solos and weird songs that don't have standard structure. I know Dustin worships pop structure but I want some more alchemy level weirdness... I think Fire/Water is my current fav. Especially on shuffle
Beggars (which I have never liked as much as most Thrice fans here do) has grown on me over the years but I still would not put it above Vheissu. The mix of melody and punch was perfect there.
It’s funny I’ve been watching old videos of them and this was during the making of Vheissu and you can totally see how their writing styles have kind of stayed that way with Vheissu on, how Teppei does more rockish jazzy stuff, Dustin more sweeping melodic stuff and Riley more heavy type stuff. Funny looking back how I also remember watching this video before Vheissu came out and that was the first time I had ever heard Pedro The Lion, and during the Thrice DVD being the first time I had heard Refused.