steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Thunderwood

"Turn it Up" CD

self-released

Genre: hard rock, metal

Calgary, AB

Dec 19, 2008

Rarely is a track listing organized alphabetically. But Thunderwood love to rock and they aren't going to let premeditated song sequencing get in the way of their lone prerogative. In fact, they even urge you to turn it up.

Although this record is a competent exercise in hard rock, its caveat is a lack of inventiveness. There are many hard rock bands out there, and most of the classic exemplars are ideologically identical to Thunderwood - except better. The three guys in charge of this band know how to play their instruments (to qualm your bated breath: that's guitar, bass, and drums), and main man Blaine Herda has a solid voice for a middle-aged dude. These folks dig their Iron Maiden, but their songs lack the melodic immediacy of their idols' resumes. Tracks like "Love Forever" and "Will You Teach me to Fly?" are bland and generic; despite this album's competence, it feels like one long lump of homogeneous music rather than an individual and dynamic song-based record. Only serious metalheads should check this one out.

thunderwood's myspace

60%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 10 tracks, distributed by the band, released 2007]