Thornbridge
What Will Prevail

A bridge of thorns spanning some lake or river in a strange and spooky forest, and there is a hanging going on there – it looks dramatic on the rather attractive cover artwork that fills the debut album of German power metal quartet Thornbridge. “Power metal just like in the good old days” is one of the facts of this album – a scary fact, let the “good old days” be buried and invent something new instead, that is my motto. They say that the band’s self-produced EP got a very good reception when it arrived and introduced the band to the scene, so what about the album?

Well, the album is power metal in style, quite melodic and a little bit epic. Many hymn-like songs and the album is generally built on very catchy and also very strong choruses. The vocals may not be fantastic but their style is such, that great vocals isn’t a requirement to make it sound great and this album surely does have a great sound. Kind of reminds me a little about a band called Galloglass, also German, whose album I heard some years ago. The album is relatively varied and the playing time is around fifty minutes so it feels kind of well-balanced and I think that the album overall can be described as a good production but hardly anything unique or creatively interesting.

It is good, great even, I enjoy listening to it and all the songs are catchy and nice. Great and catchy choruses, kind of ridiculously entertaining like many of the great power metal heroes of this continent. It is however, difficult to be just positive towards a release like this as it is not fresh and it offers the feeling of déjà vu more than once. But it will surely appeal to fans of power metal as it pushes all the right buttons and I think it will mostly be critics and those who listen to large quantities of music that will see these small problems. Then we should also point out again that it is a debut album and some character flaws are bound to creep in here and there, one could suspect that they have the potential to do way better and be more personal in upcoming works. I think that it is a strong album and it could be worth to check out, though I cannot promise that you’ll like it.

As I have already alluded to there are some great tracks on this album but the one that really catches my attention is the ninth one called Under the Ice, it is a really strong track. Then I have to mention the first song called Blow Up the Gates of Hell that sets a good tone for the album, a really good introduction. And in the end I am quite positive towards this album, even though it feel creatively limited but the entertainment value is high and those of you who like the genre should have a look at it.

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