| CD REVIEW Thunder |
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Band : Thunder Gee, hard to believe it's already two years since Thunder's previous album Robert Johnson's Tombstone! The band supported that album's release with a UK tour during November and kicking off the Robert Johnson's Tombstone Tour on March 1st in Madrid (then going through France, Belgium and Holland to tour in Germany more extensively before going back South to Italy and return home via Switzerland), after which followed the Summer festivals (the band doing appearances in Belgium twice, but also attending events in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Wales, England, and Japan). Before the Summer, they'd taken time to record some material for a series of self-released 6-track EPs with previously unreleased material, the first of which was October '07's Six Of One (followed by Half A Dozen Of The Other in April 2008, and finally by The Joy Of Six, on November 3rd, which is tomorrow if this still gets posted today! These last two EPs containing only 3 studio albums, the 3 others being live recordings), which saw a new UK tour done in support of it from Nov. 24 to December 3 of last year. This year's Summer season was kinda slow for the band, the guys only doing a few choice festivals in the UK. The band secluded themselves into a castle in the West of England for two months to record the new album this time around, recording a total of 20 songs (only 12 of which eventually made it to this album, so I suppose more EPs with previously unreleased can be expected). I'm sure I've said it before...and therefore I'm certainly saying it again...but for a British band from London claiming to have such typical British '70 Classic Rock acts as Free, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones and Bad Company as main influences, it's amazing how Thunder sounds like a shoot-off from the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, .38 Special, and the likes! I mean, if one wouldn't know better, one would swear these guys have their homestead somewhere in the South of the US! The fact that they occasionally use banjo (check "Turn Left At California")and harmonica (check "Have Mercy" and "Turn Left...")...on top of Danny Bowes typical but great nasal/ whining voice...in their songs even accentuates that feeling! Well, as far as the songs on the new album are concerned, you'll again get your portion of ballads [check "Retribution", the weird "Watching Over You" (which can be interpreted either as a song about a very sick man or a love-struck idiot), and the completely acoustic "One Bullet") ballanced against more sturdy melodic rockers. The best thing I can do now is direct you to the band's website thunderonline.com, where you can find one-minute (sometimes a little longer) of each and every song on the album...plus a great deal of other info on the band (like the meaning to the song lyrics...really worth the trouble of checking out...and much more). For full-length versions of two songs, you can go to the usual place, namely MySpace (just to be on the safe side, it's myspace.com/thunderonline, okay?). Apparently the Japanese version of the album will get a couple (take that literally) of live recordings (of songs off the current trilogy of EPs) as bonus tracks. Last word: I'm in love with this band unconditionally as long as they keep bringing out such great albums...meaning I'm adding Bang! to that "Best Albums Of 2008"-list of mine! 98/100 Tony. |