Vheissu

Vheissu is a milestone album for Thrice, released October 17, 2005.

At the time, Thrice was still with Island Records. Previous to this album, Thrice’s sound was a mixture of hardcore and punk. The band had just toured for a year and half for The Artist in the Ambulance, which was written and recorded on a tight deadline, and was ready for a change. Inspired musically, among other things, by Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, they soundproofed Teppei’s garage and started writing demos. They almost chose to produce the record themselves, but eventually chose to put their trust in Steve Osborne over Howard Benson to be their producer.

What emerged was an experimental landmark that combined odd timing with layered electronic sounds, grinding guitars, sweet piano lines, hard-hitting drums, and rich multilayered lyrics. It was both heavy and melodic and proved that Thrice didn’t have to fit a mold to make amazing music and succeed as a band.

The album’s title Vheissu comes from a place name in Thomas Pynchon’s novel, V. Dustin Kensrue interpreted it to be a term having to do with identity, even printing the German sound-alike phrase “Wie heisst du?” in the album art.