The band's big claim to fame came after it rode a huge underground following into a contract with Island/Def Jam records, which released the band's most t commercial album to date,"The Artist and the Ambulance."

Hits such as "All That's Left" and "Stare at the Sun" made Thrice a must-see act on the Vans Warped tour, and a sell-out on the club circuit. Though more digestible than the bands first two albums, "The Artist and the Ambulance" served as a logical step into the limelight for the band, staying true to the kind of metal/melodic punk fusion it had become known for.

Thrice ventured away from this sound with the less conventional "Vheissu," the last album the band would release with Island. This album proved to be a much more experimental effort that added atmospheric rock and some folk influences into the mix.

"The Alchemy Index" was released on Vagrant records as two, two-disc sets. Each disk of the set has a theme: Fire, Water, Earth and Air, each with its own musical vision.

I spoke with drummer Riley Breckenridge about the project, and the band's current tour with Rise Against, Alkaline Trio and Gaslight Anthem. Those bands will host a sold out show at Rams Head Live! in Baltimore tomorrow.

We are in Worcester, Mass.

Yeah. I think this is like, the fourth show or something. We did a headlining show on our own last night in Buffalo while the rest of the tour had the day off. Tonight we are back with Rise Against, Alkaline Trio and Gaslight Anthem.

Yeah, you know what it was really weird. We were cognisant of that day coming up, but it wasn't like a specific day that we knew. It kind of came and went, and I don't know if anyone really noticed. Teppei put up a post on our blog and it just kind of went by. It's crazy to think that we've been around for that long and that we're still having fun doing this, and that it's turned into what it's turned into. That's pretty mind blowing.

(Laughs) Um, I don't know. I think there are parts of it that the us of ten years ago woudl think was pretty cool. Some of the stuff on the "Fire" disc, I'm sure. I think, you know, some of the acoustic stuff and electronic stuff we might have thought was a little out of left field maybe, but I guess that just kind of shows how much you grow as a person and you grow as far as your musical taste goes in ten years. Back then, we were all listening to punk rock and hardcore and metal, stuff like that, and over the last ten years the scope of styles of music and artists we listen to has grown so much. It's crazy.

Yeah. It's cool looking back on it because it is like a snapshot of a certain period of your life, like looking at an old yearbook photo. As cool as it is to revist those memories, it is also kind of embarassing. You know, you think, "What were we thinking there?" or "Why did we put that part in that song?" "What were we going for with this song?"

Yeah! Totally, totally. I mean, when we started this thing ten years ago, the only goal was to have fun after school and after work, to just get together and write some songs, and then maybe if we got lucky we could play a local show. Ten years later, we've been touring probably for 8 years now. We've got to see the world and meet tons of amazing people. We've got to see all of these different places and have so many experiences that, never in our wildest dreams did we expect any of this, so it's something we are really, really grateful for.

Yeah.