Besides the writing process, the guitar-playing relationship between Teppei and Dustin has continually evolved over the years to become more fluid and open-ended. Both accomplished players, it's hard to define either as a lead guitarist; gear plays a bigger part in determining who takes what role.

“It used to be a bit more rigid, like anything that was a little more lead-ish, [Teppei] would do,” says Dustin. “But now we push it a little more.”

“There are a variety of factors that might dictate our roles as guitar players, but it's mostly whoever came up with a part will stick to it,” Teppei expands. “There are times when Dustin might be limited to what he's playing based on him simultaneously singing, or there might be a part that relies heavily on an effect pedal that I might not have - Dustin loves his pedals - so naturally, those parts fall on whoever is best equipped to play them.”

We both just play guitar and figure out what needs to happen on each song

“In Hurricane, I am playing in all that lead stuff there, which probably is the best example of it, where you’d imagine that would be him,” Dustin adds. “It’s partly just because I came up with that part and I had the pedal specifically for it; it uses an [Electro-Harmonix] POG 2 on that lead, and it’s subtle but it’s really not the same without it there. We both just play guitar and figure out what needs to happen on each song.”

Nine albums in, the pair are finely attuned to what makes a great guitar part, and TBEITBN is overflowing with them. From tempestuous opener Hurricane through to the hook-heavy post-hardcore of Blood On The Sand and the hazy, Alchemy Index-channelling Salt And Shadow, Teppei and Dustin always play off each others' strengths, forging a rugged bedrock of riffs with a dusting of arpeggiated inverted chords and infectious single-note leads.

One of the album's standouts is Black Honey, a maelstrom of distortion and dissonant guitar melodies that mirrors the song's lyrical focus: swiping honey from bees without contemplating why they'd sting back, a scathing metaphor for US foreign policy. Given the (dis-)harmony between music and lyrics, we wondered which came first.

“It was the music... that’s interesting that you say that,” Dustin ponders. “At some point, that image was just there and the song built around that image. That’s really curious. A lot of times I write lyrics in a way that are inspired by the music, because we almost always write the music first. I really want the lyrics to feel at home there, and the best way to do that is usually to be inspired by the rhythm section, thinking about the flow of the whole song.”

The same songwriting philosophy tallies with Stay With Me, an unashamed out-and-out ballad with a huge chorus, quite unlike any Thrice have recorded before. There are echoes of Dustin's solo material - particularly 2015's Carry The Fire - which the frontman says may have subconsciously had an impact, but Thrice have their own way of working.

It’s a tension that is released in that system of the music, and there’s power to that

“More and more, I want the song itself, the very bones of it, to be really strong,” says Dustin. “With Thrice, part of what’s made our music interesting is that we usually don’t start from that place. And then, as it’s built, I’ll try to take these weird pieces and build what is a really good song out of them.”

“My head is more oriented that way than it has been in the past, which is good, because Ed [Breckenridge, bass]’s head is not oriented that way at all. It’s just ways to make Thrice work if four people with pretty different ideas of where a sound should go have to work through that tension.”

It's precisely that pressure that makes the band such a resilient unit; whether ideas are approved or shot down, Thrice always unite in the end.

“Tension is the right word, and I don’t mean that as bad,” Dustin concurs. “At times, there’s something you’re trying to work out, and then a lot of times you’ll come to a spot where you find that point where everyone meets. It’s a tension that is released in that system of the music, and there’s power to that.”