Thunder Rising: Back to the Time of Rock

What we have here with Thunder Rising's newest album, Back to the Time of Rock, is a mish-mash hodgepodge of all the various tropes and cliches that make up the melodic hard rock multiverse. Whether or not that's a good thing is a matter of preference, but this is an album that has been done better and with more memorability at least a hundred dozen times in the past. And "past" is a good word to use when describing this release, because even if you are a sucker for European melodic rock, this album reeks with age. And not in a good, throwback kind of way.

The album's 12 tracks swerve around and take influence from various heavy hitters of the genre's past. For example, we have "Black Tiger", which reminds me a lot of an early Sammy Hagar number, albeit with some organ and modern production. We have a Deep Purple-esque blues rocker in the track... erm... "Timeless Blues". Kind of like a heavier "Lazy", and unsurprisingly, pretty lazy. The trend of "this sounds like Band X, but played by your dad's bar band" never reverses course, and it just makes me scratch my head. I don't really know who this is for. More savvy fans will see this as a fairly lame dinosaur, and the fans of the bands that are being aped on this would rather just listen to the originators instead, too.

The absolute best the album has to offer is the ever-so-slightly proggy and heavy "Escape From You". Organ and crunchy guitars dominate the track, and it has a few little flourishes and transitions that are a cut above the remaining tracks on the album. It's ok, but far from earth shattering.

The musicians themselves perform well enough, but I'd rather they be sloppy or undisciplined technically if it meant the songs themselves had any vigor or energy to them. While there are uptempo numbers, it just doesn't have any of the rock and roll spirit or edge that music like this needs. It's by the numbers, and completely forgettable. I can't see myself ever coming (back to) Back to the Time of Rock in any capacity. Bad is one thing, but boring (especially in the world of rock music) is even worse.

Tracklist:
1. Fate Train
2. Black Tiger
3. Scratch on the Hood
4. I'm Still Alive
5. Timeless Blues
6. Rock from the Sky
7. Don't Be Shy
8. Nameless
9. Escape From You
10. Labyrinth of Spectre
11. Nameless Part 2
12. Stairs to the Top

Added: April 2nd 2022
Reviewer: Brandon Miles
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 675
Language: english

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