Thunderstone - The Burning

*=Staff's pick	Until We Touch The Burning Sun* Break the Emotion* Mirror Never Lies Tin Star Man* Spire* Sea Of Sorrow Side By Side* Drawn To The Flame* Forth Into The Black Evil Whithin*

Genre	Power Metal	Pasi Rantanen	Vocals
Tracks	11	Nino Laurenne	Guitar
Runningtime	49 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Titus Hjelm	Bass
Release	12 Jan. 2004	Mirka "Leka" Rantanen	Drums
Country	Finland	Kari Tornach	Keyboards
Similar artists	Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Masterplan

Summer of 2002 was when Finnish metal act Thunderstone released their self titled debut album and now, 1,5 years later they're back with their latest effort, The Burning. This is an album that should prove to the world wide metal audience that Thunderstone definitely is the real deal and that they've succeeded on their mission to follow up their debut with yet another solid album. And The Burning also surpasses its predecessor in mainly four aspects.

First of all, the already great vocals from Pasi Rantanen have seen a great development and his efforts this time are among the very best I've heard in a long while and that's instantly notable. His singing has changed towards above all a more powerful and gritting delivery and it also feels much more intense. His mic efforts reminds very much of two of the absolute best vocalists on the metal scene of today- Johnny Gioeli (Axel Rudi Pell) and Jorn Lande (Masterplan). That should give you enough reasons to begin to comprehend what's going on here and Rantanen definitely dominates the sound landscape. For me his performance is the number one highlight of this release and it also comes close to the highest mark.

Secondly, the band has left a huge portion of the earlier Stratovarius influences behind and have instead found a more individual sound. The basic song structure remains from the debut though and those of you who've heard the band before will of course get quite a familiar experience but some new facets have been incorporated. Not only do I get Masterplan flashbacks by listening to Rantanens vocals but also the overall build up on a couple of the mid tempo tracks now bare strong Masterplan traces instead of mainly Stratovarius'.

The guitar work has seen more solos and also some little extra touches in mainly the intros to the faster driven tracks and also here the Stratovarius touches have been pushed more to the background. So due to these reasons the critics that on many occations stated that Thunderstone was yet another clone of the this Finnish act might find themselves running very low on such ammunition. A thing that hasn't been completely washed away though is the Sonata Arctica sounding keyboards. They are pretty much what you can expect having heard the debut but both the keyboards alone and the keys/guitar-bending interaction is just as good as before, so sit tight people.

The third issue that's changed to the better is the production that was executed by the always succeeding Mikko Karmila at Finnvox Studios. The sound this time is much fuller and also a bit heavier and gloomier. Overall then the entire album of course feels a bit darker than on the debut but that's not only a result of this sonical expression but also of the lyrical. All these afore stated improvments together lead into the fourth final one: The songs of course have gotten better and the band have found the tools they need to continue their metal journey. The heavy riffing, strong and steady rhythm sections, excellent melodic bridges and mighty choruses where Rantanaen also gets support by terrific backing vocals provide a really striking impact. The refrains immediately stick and get recorded by the brain and Rantanen's voice fills the room with atmosphere.

Like I pointed out in my review of Power Quest's Neverworld, January might prove to be the super metal month of 2004 when it's time to summarize the year later on. Thunderstone's The Burning is yet further proof of that and despite that it's still not that exploding real killer album these guys surely seem more than capable of delivering, they've taken a great step towards it and this release should definitely satisfy many metal listeners. Especially followers of Finnish metal and also those of you who crave stunning and powerful metal fueled by impressive vocals have found a disc more than well suitable for an investment!

See also review of: Apocalypse Again , Tools Of Destruction , Thunderstone

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	9	8

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - Mat