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Tothen - Beyond The Tomorrow
Beyond the Tomorrow is the debut album of the new Brazilian speed power metal band Thoten. The vocalist Renato Tribuzy was one name figuring when it came to replace Andre Matos in Angra. And the Angra- guitarist Kiko Loureiro's also produced this album and he also performs some guest-guitar-solos on some of the tracks. Beyond the Tomorrow is also mastered at House of Music, which is also used by for instance Helloween and Primal Fear. But calling this speed power metal as Thoten's being promoted as, is hardly the case. They instead sound more like a hybrid between a demo-version of Labÿrinth and worse Dream Theatre plagiarism. Hence, this is way more progressive metal than speed power. There are tendencies of this though, but the overall sound is a progressive one. The sound is also very thin and I can only with fear imagine what it would have been like without House of Music The vocalist didn't fill Matos position in Angra and I begin to realize why. At the low tones he performs quite well but in the high parts it's below average. This is, as you might guess not an album that appeals
to me. There are a few choruses that got some potential though and that
goes for some guitar-melodies too (probably by Loureiro) but it's unfortunately
not enough to raise the standard of the album. I have big difficulties in seeing that this album will
be a great success except for in perhaps Brazil where they've apparently
had some better reception. I'm very sorry to say this but Thoten will have to improve tremendously 'cause this can only be described as a very mediocre debut. It isn't good even compared to other up-and-comers in the genre and I must admit I'm very disappointed. Given some time and routine perhaps Thoten can be something
more extraordinary but at the present time that is sadly not the case.
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