Thrice
Major/Minor
Release Date: Sep 20, 2011
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Post-Hardcore, Alternative Metal, Heavy Metal, Punk Revival, Screamo
Record label: Vagrant
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Album Review: Major/Minor by Thrice
Very Good, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 7.8/10
If more bands treated their fans as Thrice do, there would be fewer music fans. The Irvine, Calif., quartet has done more to alienate its die-hard devotees than even that pesky doomsday preacher Harold Camping, ignoring precedents and vanquishing expectations with each release. It’s really very disorienting: just when you thought Thrice fit neatly into some genre, they go all Mr.
Based on rating 7/10
California alt-rockers Thrice's seventh album furthers the stripped-down, bluesy sound of its predecessor, Beggars, while also embracing the more aggressive and commercial sound established on 2005's Vheissu. Opener "Yellow Belly" kicks Major/Minor off as if it means to continue with a thick rock riff in the Tom Morello vein while Dustin Kensrue directs his anger at what is presumed to be a domestic abuser: "You're less than half a man, yellow belly and crimson hands. " Kensrue's religious faith is prominent in his lyrics, having been somewhat played down on recent albums, and tracks like "Treading Paper" and "Listen Through Me" find him at his most inspired, lyrically and vocally.
Based on rating 6/10
“If anything is anything, there must be something meant for us to be. ” Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue sings that slightly clunky phrase with rapturous zeal on “Treading Paper” ,an emphatic highlight from his band’s eighth studio album, Major/Minor, with his pseudo-spiritual pleas circling in a drain of raw distortion and clamoring beats. Vague and open-ended as the lyric may be, Kensrue may as well be singing about his band’s career.
Opinion: Excellent
A brilliant seventh set from a band that gets better and better. Raziq Rauf 2011 Thrice appear to be getting better and better with every album released. Major/Minor is their seventh studio album and certainly follows that upwards trend: the follow-up to 2009’s Beggars may well be the Californian quartet’s best yet. The thing that strikes you immediately is how remarkably honest-sounding this record is, frontman Dustin Kensrue’s voice clear and true.
Opinion: Excellent
Most fans of post-hardcore will tell you that the genre hit its apex somewhere between 2000 and 2006. Those were the genre’s golden years, the days when acts like At The Drive-In and the Blood Brothers were the main Warped Tour attractions instead of All Time Low and Brokencyde. It’s 2011 now, and most of those post-hardcore veterans are either broken up or only occasionally releasing records.
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