Yeah, I've actually been thinking they were much better than similar bands for a long time, now.  Illusion of Safety and Artist in the Ambulance were terrible/generic albums, so I'd kind of written them off, and then I heard Vheissu.  Don't get me wrong, Vheissu is still a pretty bad album, but there was clearly a significant amount of ambition, and that's about when I realized that they must have an appreciation for how tired their schtick was, and were trying to be something better.  That alone made me think of them in a much more lenient light than other post-hardcore acts.

Vheissu was the last time I checked in on them, though.  It was ambitious but it was still their awful vocalist just screaming a lot of the time, so I'm honestly surprised they've managed to come so far in a couple of years.  This new stuff is surprisingly OKAY most of the time!  I wouldn't listen to most of it of my own volition at all, but it's really admirable that firstly, they even showed such ambition to begin with, and secondly, that they actually followed through with it and managed to go from being a commercially successful gay emo band to... something else.  Something weirder and definitely less accessible/marketable.  I really can't help but have a pretty decent amount of respect for them.

There was a thread on these guys in another forum I visit, and half of the post were praising this band for trying something different, and the other half were people saying that old thrice was better and how they should have never changed their stuff. I have Vheissu and the only song I listen to is Atlantic. I don't know why but that song just chills me out. Other than that I'm not really into this band. I thought they made a good move in taking a different direction and trying to do something different, its just not my thing. But then again, I listen to some pretty generic stuff, so I'm not really in a position to say anything.