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Rocking, riff-centric Heavy Metal will never go out of style, and this is one of the more fun formulaic albums to be released in the last couple years. If I had to draw comparisons I'd say the style of the riffing and song structures can be Tarot-ish at times, though I don't like the female vocals of singer and bassist Ida Haukland as much as venerable Finn Marco Hietala. Still, as far as women in metal goes she sets a higher bar than most; I doubt many of the female Power metal or 'Gothic metal' vocalists could pull off a performance this blistering on a Heavy Metal album like Onwards, especially while playing a vital instrument!

There are a lot of good riffs here, varied too, never repeating for long. Marcus Silver, former Griffin guitarist (not the U.S. band, unfortunately) shows a lot of ability and, more importantly, maturity. The focus of the music is equal parts memorable vocal lines and interesting riffs, leads and solos. The drum work is competently done, nothing extraordinary, but I wasn't expecting a clinic. Ida Haukland does a phenomenal job on bass, usually tackling a more supportive role than that of a Lemmy or a DeMaio, but her subdued playing complements the guitar track extremely well, adding an extra dimension of depth to the riffs.

Norway isn't exactly a hotbed for metal acts on the traditional side, but Triosphere have potential. The only issue holding this album back is its tendency to become tedious after repeated listens, owing mostly I'd say to a lack of originality. It's all been done before, sometimes better, often worse. Passionate fans of the style will likely eat it up -- supposing they ever hear it, since it doesn't have much "crossover appeal" or possess a whole lot to separate it from other good traditional metal releases. Worth a listen if you've mined and exhausted the '80s for good classic metal artists and want something a little bit fresher.