ThunderStorm - As We Die Alone

Published April 19 2007

*=Staff's pick	Hawking Radiation Death Rides On The Highway We Die As We Dream (Alone)* I Wait Hypnowheel Of Life* L S.L.O.W. Preacher's Dream The Mad Monk* Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Genre	Doom Metal	Fabio Bellan	Vocals
Tracks	10	Fabio Bellan	Guitar
Runningtime	49 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Dragonheart Records	Omar Roncalli	Bass
Release	30 March 2007	Attilio Coldani	Drums
Country	Italy	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	Candlemass, Black Sabbath

First impression: Nice cover and logo, looks like old classic metal or thrash or something. Therefore I get kind of disappointed when at first Hawking Radiation and Death Rides On The Highway sounds rather like some modern depressing stuff. But after these slightly more up to date songs I begin to grasp the mix of doom, stoner and light prog. Then, after a couple of times, it again appears somewhat different. Now I hear Black Sabbath, and their child of doom Candlemass straight through.

We Die As We Dream (Alone) is a semi-ballad with severe feeling baked in the dough, which eventually turns into a Black Sabbath-riffing, heavy work. I Wait and Hyponwheel Of Life start the real doom/Sabbath part. S.L.O.W. is… guess what? Slow as hell! And long. It even has a disturbed deliberate 'notch' part in the middle. It takes some time for that kind of slowness to grow into my speed metal mind. If you like turgid, groovy-heavy midtempo metal, like I do, The Mad Monk is the track to tune in. It has its again severe traces of both Candlemass and Black Sabbath. The title Voodoo Child might sound familiar, and yes it is a cover of Jimi Hendrix.

As We Die Alone craves some work to penetrate. But when you pass the rickety bridge over the blood troubled water, there is a solid shore on the other side. Last and finally I am glad that there exist at least three Italian metal musicians who don't want to sound like Rhapsody (Of Fire) and to that an Italian singer without serious issues with pronouncing English.