Thunderstorm - Faithless Soul

*=Staff's pick	Templars Of Doom Forbidden Gates* Black Light Gadda da Vida In My House Of Misery Hidden Face Final Curtain Narrow Is The Road

Genre	Doom Metal	Fabio "Thunder" Bellan	Vocals
Tracks	8	Fabio "Thunder" Bellan	Guitar
Runningtime	51 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Dragonheart	Omar Roncalli	Bass
Release	25 Oct. 2004	Attilio Coldani	Drums
Country	Italy	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Trouble

After being presented with a band that is told to be about to release "THE doom metal album of 2004", you expect to be able lean back and be hit be a fat slob of groovy riffs that will crush everything in your way, and to feel like a blast of thunder is hitting your face. Therefor, it is kind of an anticlimax, to put it mildly, to with the first song out be served a very weak mixture of a tired and very standardized riff, accompanied by dry and hollow drums, and a vocalist that does not have the strenght and pondus to rise to the level the heavy rhythm section deserves. At the first glance, it did not look very promising from here.

In the next song the level rise significally, with a very fat and neckbreaking riff in uptempo, and things look brighter. Strong Black Sabbath vibes make themselves present in the verse, and there is actually a melodic chorus involved, but without becoming too cheerful to ruin the gloomy approach. A good song, and here the album reaches its peak, and the downfall is about to begin. From here onwards, it's snail tempo, ominous and melancholic moods and a few fragments of melodies that form something that can be called a bridge or a chorus, that is on the menu. Gadda da Vida is the tune that sticks out by being slightly uptempo, but is completely ruined by a bad vocal performance. I have the feeling that the vocals are as the band want them to be, and that they are supposed to be like this in order to fit the genre - a little bit semi false, naked and shaky - but it does not work for me.

The rest on the songs steadily flow on more or less a consistant tempo, and not much is offered as surprises or attention catchers. In fact, it follows the definitions of the genre very tight, and therein lies most of their weakness. This is doom metal composed after standard form 1A, with the only difference that the production and the vocals are not up to par with many other in the genre. Ergo, it already halfway into the album tends to feel like a long road to the finish, since it simply gets too boring. The instrumental skills are from time to time also contributing to the kind of flat impression. Even though doom metal is not the most challenging genre for a guitarist, it sounds a bit amateurish, and somewhat clumsy, in some parts.

Thunderstorm have previously released 2 albums, Sad Symphony (2000) and Witchunter Tales (2002), whereof the first is talked about as a masterpiece in the genre. I have heard neither of them, but after hearing this effort I do not really feel an urge to make a rush for the other albums.