I first encountered Washington, D.C.'s A Sound of Thunder with their fourth album The Lesser Key of Solomon and was impressed (for some reason I called it their sixth album in my review). Traditional/Power Metal was the style on that album and the follow-up, Tales from the Deadside leans more to the Traditional side. The tempos are almost all mid-paced but the riffs are just as big and ballsy. Singer Nina Osegueda is one of the best female singers in the business and gives her pipes a real workout. The band continues to push boundaries, this time taking on the story of the Shadowman, a dark, evil figure from the world of Voodoo (not your typical lyrical fodder for Heavy Metal to be sure). The story is woven together by a Cajun-accented narrator and while that starts to get old after a while, the songs most definitely do not. "Sandria (Carry On)," "Tower of Souls" and "Can't Go Back" crash and bang with blunt force while "Deadside" and "Losing Control (The Unquiet Shadow)" make use of slower, atmospheric song structures to create a dark and creepy feel. A Sound of Thunder even use horns (we are presumably in Louisiana, after all) on "Punk Mambo" and make it work within the scope of the album.

Solid songwriting and performances, along with a flair for the slightly unique and different, make Tales from the Deadside an album definitely worth checking out.