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I had to allow myself a childish chuckle as I perused the track listing of this CD. "Tool of the Devil", "I Will Come Again"… Sorry, but with puerile double entendres aside I just knew that this was going to be some highly dubious power metal band by a) the band's name and b) the line up of silken shirted goons in the press photo.

Ok, ok so I'm happy to say that it's nowhere near as awful as say Twilightning (but at least those guys never dressed like gays), but it still really isn't that great either. The riffs on display here are the usual power metal fare (chuggy, widdly AND spangly), the drums are pretty solid with some great double bass and jazzy beats, and the vocals although sung with the usual power metal gusto, have a slightly more rugged edge to them.

The points that really let Thunderstone down however (and that leave an unpleasant scummy residue in the listeners' ear) are the god-awful lyrics (I don't care what anyone else says – metal isn't the right music for love songs, and therefore it borders on Gorgonzola rather than just Brie on the cheese-o-meter, and ends up sounding like it has less balls than Action Man). The second major detrimental point is the occasional painful overuse of keyboards throughout parts of the album (for my own tastes anyway, if you were there fist-banging to 'The Final Countdown' in the 80's, and your musical tastes haven't strayed far since then, you may well cream yourself listening to this).

Well, what more can I say about this flouncing, floral affair? Think 80's, think high pitched vocal delivery whining about troubled love, think "going to be huge in Germany without a shadow of a doubt". On a closing note, and following on from my earlier track title over-analysis, track two is called "Without Wings". Perhaps an ode to the band's preference for female sanitation and hygiene products? Who can tell…?