Entertainment Weekly (7/25/03, p.73) - "...You'll find enough quality emo-core on the band's major-label debut to keep your head and heart banging." - Grade: B
Q (10/03, p.117) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Tracks such as the sonorous 'Under a Killing Moon' offers a neat bridge between punk's righteous fury and the doleful beauty of Coldplay..."
CMJ (7/28/03, p.24) - "...The band's major label debut ups the post-hardcore, metal and pop-punk ante tenfold..."
CMJ (p.6) - "[A]n acoustic version of last year's single 'Stare At The Sun' should satiate the sensitivos and Sebastians."
Thrice: Dustin Kensrue (vocals); Teppei Teranishi (guitar); Eddie Breckenridge (bass); Riley Breckenridge (drums).
Additional personnel: Charlie Barnett (arranger, conductor); Chris Shieh (violin); Osman Kivrak (viola); Mario Bothello (cello); Greg Watkins (bass).
Recorded at Bearsville Studios, Bearsville, New York; Salad Days, Beltsville, Maryland and Phase Studios, College Park, Maryland.
On THE ARTIST IN THE AMBULANCE, alternative rock/emo-core combo THRICE lays down an unflaggingly intense set of melodically sharp, lyrically ambitious post-hardcore. Highlighted by the emotionally apocalyptic Active Rock radio chart-topping smash "All That's Left," the album stands head and shoulders above contemporary efforts by virtue of vocalist Dustin Keane's poetic lyrics, which often aspire to the exquisitely crafted, heart-tugging efforts of melancholy masters like Bob Mould or even Joni Mitchell.
Musically, the group eschews the simple three-chord jams of other pop-punk hitmakers in favor of a multi-textured hard rock melange that is equal parts All-style harmony-laden punk rock fury and Queensryche-esque jackhammer-heavy rhythmic complexity. In the end, however, the band's disparate influences combine seamlessly into a sound sure to endear Thrice to listeners looking for a more mature, artful version of nu-metalers such as Linkin Park and Incubus.