Thaurorod: Coast Of Gold (Drakker Records)
As I’ve said in previous reviews there seems to be an influx of extremely high quality power metal at the moment and the new album by Thaurorod is no exception. Coast Of Gold is the third album for the Finnish power metallers and is my first exposure to the band and another pleasant surprise. Thaurorod deliver up an album of absolute top quality power metal. This is huge and anthemic stuff with a strong symphonic element running throughout. The songs on the whole are fast, speedy tunes with plenty of double kick and instrumental pyrotechnics by the hugely talented members of the band especially the guitarists Lasse Nyman and Emppu Pohjalainen (also of Amberian Dawn). The choruses throughout are massive and are guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days. Songs such as Power, The Commonwealth Lives, Feed The Flame, Cannibal Island and the huge title track are pure power metal anthems and will be irresistible to fans of the genre. This is another superb power metal album released in the last few months showing that the genre is truly alive and well in 2018. 9/10
Oblivion: Resilience (Rock Of Angels Records)
Oblivion is the new project featuring ex-members of Nightmare Jo Amore, David Amore and Steff Rabilioud with Resilience being their debut album. With three ex-members of Nightmare involved you know they have the experience to pull off a new project and with Resilience they pull it off with ease. What Oblivion have offered up with Resilience is absolutely no nonsense power metal which definitely leans to the more aggressive side of the genre. The vocals by Jo Amore are melodic yet with enough grit and gruffness to match the vicious guitar riffs and pounding rhythm section. The songs on the album range from speedy power metal anthems to more mid paced traditional heavy metal songs. Standout songs for me included Honor And Glory, Shine In My Galaxy, Evil Spell and my personal favourite Punished By The Crowd. There are one or two songs on the album which are a bit forgettable but on the whole this is an enjoyable piece of power metal. 8/10
Insanity Alert: Insanity Alert (Season Of Mist)
Austrian thrashers Insanity Alert have just signed to Season Of Mist records who will be releasing their brand new album later on the year. As well as that they are reissuing the bands debut album which is what I’m looking at here. The self titled debut album was originally released in 2004 on Empire Records and the music that Insanity Alert play on this album is a fun and energetic style of thrash metal highly influenced by the crossover thrash scene. That means lots of short and sharp songs with a massive sense of humour running throughout evident in songs such as Glorious Thrash, Macaroni Maniac, the bluesy Blunt In/Blunt Out and their reworking of Iron Maiden’s classic Run To The Hills renamed Run To The Pit. It’s a fun and enjoyable album but like a lot of the crossover thrash songs it’s over as soon as it starts getting enjoyable. The reissue doesn’t come with any bonus tracks and is simply the original album and nothing else which comes across as a bit of a wasted opportunity. Fast, fun but unessential thrash. 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment