THUNDERHEART – Night of the Warriors review

THUNDERHEART – Night of the Warriors

Killer Metal Records

https://www.facebook.com/thunderheartofficial

Everything in life goes in circles. The same law applies to art too. The question though is what kind of circles we do… The ones that hold us stuck to the same routine or the ones that help us reinvent ourselves and come back with fresh ideas? Heavy metal as a musical genre has passed through many stages and has sometimes experimented with effects and sounds that made it sound heavier with only purpose to create quick impressions. In our days we witness many new musicians that show interest for the 80’s metal sound and they create music which most of the times might be nothing more than a copy, but there are some that give their own character to their old school influences. THUNDERHEART from Spain is a traditional heavy metal band which was formed by three musicians two of which were members of the band STEEL HORSE (it has earned a cult status among the fans of traditional heavy metal) and the singer who is member of the band WILD (another band that is much appreciated in the underground heavy metal scene). All these look very interesting and I will try to give to you a clear image with this review.

THE COVER: The title of the debut album of the band is “Night of the Warriors”; A title that in my opinion could easily be a title of an 80’s adventure movie. I can imagine a movie like “Escape from New York”. This is the feeling of the cover too which depicts the 3 band members heading to a town (you can see the skyscrapers on the background). The cover art is beautiful and breathes out the 80’s heavy metal attitude of the band. There is nothing misleading here.

MUSICAL STYLE: Spain had an interesting scene in the 80’s metal and if you have the time then it will pay you back if you search it, but THUNDERHEART are mainly influenced by the heavy metal sound that was crafted in the early 80’s in Great Britain. I mean the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement which was essential for the further evolution of our sound. They do have though some European heavy metal elements in their sound too.

COMPOSITIONS: You will find here 10 compositions that are deeply rooted mainly in the N.W.O.B.H.M. sound. I think that you can find amongst their influences groups like IRON MAIDEN, SAXON, TYGERS OF PAN TANG and of course GRIM REAPER. There are, however, also some references to the German heavy metal scene of the late 70’s and early 80’s. There are times that the band made me think of groups like MSG and SCORPIONS. THUNDERHEART manage to combine all these influences in a creative way and instead of sounding like copycats they actually sound like a band that comes from that era.

CONCLUSION: I don’t know how original someone can be when he/she plays traditional heavy metal music, but the most important thing is to create songs that will make you listen to them and even love them and become your favorites. I think that THUNDERHEART have this ability and offer us an album that will travel us back, but also remind us that there are still bands that can produce good classic heavy metal music.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis